Universal Rangers
by Digiprotector
Summary: In the year 4000, evil has surfaced yet again. It will take a new kind of Ranger to stop evil this time, or in any time. UPDATE Dec 29: Chap 9 and 10 up! John is on trial for crimes against Time Force. What will become of the Rangers? Complete! Please R
1. Prolouge

In the year 3000, the notorious mutant criminal Ransik escaped capture by Time Force and stole away to the year 2001 in hopes of take control of that time and rewriting history so that Time Force was never created. 4 Time Force operatives, Jen, Katie, Lucas, and Trip, took chase after him. With the help of a civilian from that time, Wes, and the aid of Time Force HQ, the new Time Force team was able to combat Ransik and his mutants and return him to the year 3000.

In the years following the apprehension of Ransik by what has become known as Time Force: Team Alpha, relations between mutants and humans grew, ending the long war between the two groups. Peace graced the world as mutants and humans worked together to enlighten themselves and begin traveling outside of their own galaxy.

Sadly, as time has shown us, peace can never last forever. In the last decade of the 22nd century, a rouge faction of mutants and humans, calling itself the "Future Protectorate", calmed that Time Force had taken too much control over the development of the future by changing the past. They began attacking civilian outposts along the outer rim of the solar system, claming to be saving them from the tyranny knows at Time Force. Its scientists began researching alternate ways to travel through time other then the transwarp gate developed by Time Force in order to "repair" the timeline. No words of success have been heard since this development began, but Time Force is doubtful that they will succeed. Time force was sent to investigate, only to be attacked and turned back. Recently, these attacks have come closer and closer to Earth. Attacks have begun on Earth, causing Time Force to act. Time Force began developing new ways to turn back these attacks, and began development on a new type of time travel, one that would not require the use of a time ship to travel through time, in fear that these attacks showed that the Future Protectorate has succeeded in their quest for a new type of time travel. The Future Protectorate, learning of this, began attacking Time Force directly in order to gain this new technology.

Time Force was forced to up their guard and being recruiting new operatives for a special strike force team, codenamed: Universal Rangers, to combat this new threat.


	2. Training Day

"And you could be one of them!"

Commander Oliver looked over the room full of new Time Force cadets as he paced. The room housed about 10 of them, all watching Oliver very closely.  
Oliver turned his back to them. You all know the history of Time Force. And you should all know why you are here. All of you have been chosen from the current Time Force Academy graduating class for your exceptional abilities. You will be tested and trained to become part of the Universal Ranger program, but only 5 of you will make it."  
Oliver faced the cadets. "Look around you. Each of the cadets surrounding you is now your rival. Work harder then them, and you might actually have a chance."  
Oliver stood at attention, as the cadets followed suit. "YES SIR!"  
"You will now go through a rigorous test of endurance. Those of you who do not survive can kiss this opportunity goodbye." Oliver eyed one young man in the crowed; He looked like most of the other cadets: Standard clothing, about 6'5" with short brown hair. One thing caught the commander's eye: He was the only one wearing glasses. Oliver sighed to himself. "You!" He called, pointing at the cadet, "What is your name?"  
The cadet looked up, slightly shaken. "…J.. John Sir…" He quickly jumped to attention and saluted.  
Oliver walked up to him and stared him straight in the face. "Why are you wearing those things?"  
"Sir," said John, "I cannot see without them Sir!"  
"And why have you not taken the necessary measures to fix this problem?"  
"Sir, I do not understand sir!"  
Oliver groaned. "YOU know what I mean, cadet! Why have you not had corrective surgery after entering the Academy?"  
John gulped, then broke a little smile, "Sir, I was given the choice between have the surgery or keeping my glasses. I choose to keep my glasses sir."  
Oliver was visibly disgusted by the answer he received. "And WHY is that?"  
John struggled to keep a straight face as he answered, "Sir, because I like the way I look in glasses, sir."  
Oliver was taken back by the answer, but was not at all pleased with it. A snicker came from another cadet, who quickly received an evil glare from Oliver.  
Oliver turned back to John. After staring at him for a moment, he said "I am watching you…."  
Oliver walked back to the front of the room. "You will all know make your way to the training facility. Dismissed!"  
"YES SIR!" the cadets saluted Commander Oliver, and then made their way out of the room.

Oliver watched as the cadets walked out single file. "That kid…" Oliver through to himself, "He is going to be a problem that one…"

………………………………….…………………………………………

John walked down the hallway towards the training facility with the other cadets when he felt a sudden push on his back. "What is wrong with you?" A voice from behind him said.   
John turned around, "What?" He came face to face with a young woman, no older then him. She was about 5'6"dressed like all the other cadets, standard issue white shoes, pants, and jacket. She had long, dirty blond hair that ran down just past her shoulders.  
"You know what I mean. You could have gotten yourself kicked out right then and there!"  
"Rachel, calm down. All I did was answering the man."  
"He's got a point," said another cadet walking towards pair. He had short black hair, about 5'10".  
"Yes, but so does she," said another cadet. She was about 5'3" and had long red hair.  
"Thank you Katherine," Rachel turned to her friend."  
John just sighed, 'Why do they always gang up on me, Brian?"  
The other boy just laughed, "Don't ask me. You get yourselves into these situations."  
"Ya, thanks," John smiled and gave a playful punch to Brian's arm.  
Brain was about to retaliate when the group was stopped by a young man.  
"Guys you better get back with the group."  
John turned to the boy, "Barry, calm down. You worry too much."  
"And you don't worry enough. I am not facing the trainer's wrath by getting there late."  
Barry turned back and ran to catch back up with the main group.  
"Well I am following him," Brian turned to follow Barry.  
"We all should," Rachel said. She and Katherine began to walk away.  
"You guys worry too much. We already survived the hard part. It's just a little test. What is the worst that can happen?"  
………………………………………………………………………………….

John fell face first into a mat on the gym floor. "My everything hurts…."

"Hey, I told you not to be late," Barry said as he sat down next to his friend. "Ya, But you didn't tell me Oliver was running the test…."  
John rolled over and used a nearby wall to pull him self up. He sat up and leaned against it.  
"You didn't ask," Barry laughed as he waved over the others.  
Rachel sat down next to John, "Wow… how did you survive all that?"  
"Ya man. How many times did you have to do the course again?" Brian leaned against the wall as Katherine sat next to Rachel.   
"I don't want to think about it."  
Katherine had an evil smile on her face, "Wasn't it like 50…."  
John interrupted her, "I said I don't want to think about it. Even thinking hurts right now."  
"How is that different from any other day?"  
John made an attempted to push her away, but he got as far as lifting his hand an inch off the floor before it fell. "You are _soooo_ lucky I am tired right now."  
Katherine laughed, as did the others.  
"What is so funny, cadets?" Commander Oliver suddenly appeared in front of them.  
"SIR!" The entire group jumped to their feet, with John moving a bit slower then the rest.  
Oliver looked and John and smiled, "So, what did you think of my little exercise, cadet?"  
John looked Oliver directly in the eye, "It was great sir. Hadn't had a workout like that for a while now."  
Silently, Rachel sighed. "_He just can't stop can he?"_ she thought to herself.  
Oliver look angry, but then smiled, "Well that is good. I thought you would be tired from all that running, but if you still have energy in you, I have the perfect job for you. The research team has been asking for increased security around the labs for awhile now. I think you would be perfect for the job."  
"Excuse me, sir, but I thought cadets were not allowed on guard detail."  
"For you, son, I think I can make an exception," Oliver grinned.  
"Great…sir…" John could only fake a smile while he thought of what was coming next.


	3. Evil Strikes

_"How do I get myself into these things?"_ John thought as he walked down the hallway towards the research lab. It was 1 AM and he was reporting for his "voluntary" guard duty. As he reached the research division, he began to look around. Cadets normally weren't allowed into this sector of the Academy due to security reasons. Normally, he would be quite happy taking a walk down there, but not tonight. Not at 1 AM.

He looked through the windows of many of the labs, seeing all sorts of things: one lab was used for weapons research, and the entire lab was in disarray, along with a couple of scorch marks on the walls. John laughed to himself, imagining what could have happened, and wishing that Commander Oliver could have been just a little too close to the experiment.  
Another one of the labs was used for defensive purposes, and had bits and pieces of material scattered across one of the tables. In the corner, a piece of armor rested on a table. Seeing it, John walked over to the window for a better look. It was bright red and seemed to be made out of some new-age material. "_Must be for one of the Red Rangers,_" John thought to himself. John wished he could even get close to it. The reason he entered the Academy was to become a red ranger. It was a dream of his since he was a child.

"Hey you!"  
John snapped out of his daydream and turned towards the voice. It was a higher ranking officer near the end of the hallway. He was standing near the entranceway to one of the labs. John quickly made is way over to him. "Yes sir?"  
"Are you the cadet that Commander Oliver sent over for guard duty?"  
"Yes sir" John sighed as he answered his higher officer.  
The officer just laughed, "You must have really gotten on his bad side for him to send you down here." He turned to a computer panel on the wall and placed his hand on it. The panel scanned his hand and spoke, "Hand Scan verified; lockdown commencing."  
"Ok kid. You are on shift as of now. You will be stationed here till 1000 hours."  
John's jaw fell open.  
The officer laughed again, "Don't worry. This place is pretty much quiet. No one comes down here, and there isn't anything here to bother you. Just sit back and enjoy it" He tossed a baton to John.  
"Ya… enjoy it…." John caught it easily and strapped it to his belt.  
The officer yawned, stretching his arms out. "Well, I appreciate you being here. I actually get the night off for once.  
The officer began to walk down the hallway. Just before he turned down another hall, John called out to him. "Sir!" He turned around.  
"What's in here anyway?"  
"Heck if I know. That's top secret stuff. I've been working this station for the past 6 months and I haven't gotten a word out of the researches who work there." He turned back to the hallway, waving to John. "Good luck kid."  
"Ya… Thanks….." John leaned against the wall and took a look at his watch. "8 hours… and 55 minutes left." John groaned. "This is going to be a _loonggg_ night."  
………………………………………………………………………………………………

A few hours later, John awoke by a loud noise. "I'm not asleep!" He called out as he tried to jump to his feet, causing him to lose his balance and almost crash to the floor. He looked around and saw no one. He yawned and cracked his back.  
"Hm… Must have been nothing…."Another crash, louder and closer then the first came from down the hall.  
"Who is there?" John began to walk towards the noise.  
Suddenly, the lights began to flicker. As John looked down the hallway, he saw each row of lights suddenly go out. The lights above him were the last go. He turned back to see two large figures standing outside the research lab.  
"Hey you! Stop!" He quickly ran after the figures.  
One of the figures turned towards him. All John could see was his glowing red eyes. John could feel the eyes staring right at him. A feeling of dread began to fill him.The sound of an explosion and the tearing of metal broke John from his trance. The red-eyed figure turned towards the door and began to walk in.  
John ran down the hall towards the lab. Suddenly the backup systems kicked on. As the emergency lights finally turned on, John was able to make out the figure of a weapon being carried by one of the figures. John grabbed his baton and ran into the lab after them.

The backup lights lit up the lab slightly, showing John a few tables and computers. In the far corner sat an odd looking structure. It was arched shaped, and was large enough for a person to walk through. The one of the figures walked towards it as the other walked to the control panel next to it. It pushed some random buttons of the panel. An electric hum came from the device as the tables and chairs in the room began to vibrate. John ran into the room, baton drawn.  
"You two are under arrest!" One of figures turned to John, then back to its partner.  
"Keep working. I will take care of this nuisance." The figure with the weapon walked towards John. As it grew closer it was finally reviled by the light. It was a large creature, covered completely in red and back armor. Only its face was uncovered. It had a human-like face, contradicting the monstrous look of his body. Its eye were set in what seemed in a permanent glare, as if everything is saw it hated. Its skin was a deep crimson red. Each of his arms was enormous and seemed to pulsate with power with each step it took. On its hilt rested it weapon: a large long sword.  
It grabbed its sword as it turned to John. "Come human; Try and stop me."  
John stared at the creature for only a moment, and then ran towards it, weapon draw. The two clashed weapons. The monster kicked John in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and throwing him back. It then dove towards him, driving his sword forward towards John's chest. John dodged it the best he could, but grimaced in pain as the blade sliced into his shoulder. John fell back onto the floor holding his shoulder. The creature laughed. "Human you can never hope to defeat someone as powerful as me." It turned towards the machine. "Once we take the time portal, nothing will stop us from bending time to our will." He turned back towards John. "We mutants will cleanse the universe of your kind." He laughed again and turned back towards the device.  
"NO!" John jumped to his feet and thrust his baton at the monster, only to have it caught. "Human, do you really think you can stop me?" A wicked grin came to the mutant's face. It shot it arm out and grabbed John's wounded shoulder. John cried out in pain.  
"Yes, scream. Your pain will be the pain of all humans soon." The mutant threw John back to the floor and turned back towards the gate.  
"Soon Time Force will fall, and nothing will be able to stop us!"  
The creature at the controls turned to his accomplice. "It is done."  
"What is done?" John climbed to his feet.  
It turned to John. All he could make out was the goggles on its face. "You end."

Suddenly, a huge wave of power erupted from the gate. John was thrown back into a table. Badly wounded, John struggled to his feet to see a portal form inside the device. The mutant laughed as it and its accomplice walked into the portal. It turned back and looked at its victim. "Remember my name, human. It is Kantor. It is the name that will bring about the downfall of humanity, and the rise of the mutant." John could only watch as Kantor walked toward the portal, as he and the gate itself were pulled into it.  
"No….." was all that escaped his lips before he passed out.


	4. Unsettling Times

John awoke with a start, jumping up out of the bed.  
"STOP!"  
"Good, he's awake." A woman walked up to him.  
"Where am I?" John tired to move, but a sharp pain in his shoulder forced him to sit back.  
"Just relax. You're still hurt." The woman walked up to him. She wore glass, and had a uniform similar to his. "You are in the medical bay at the academy. You were brought in two days ago with heavy injuries."  
John thought back to his battle with Kantor. He slowly grabbed his shoulder. "Ya… I remember." He began to look around the room he was in. It was a normal room, reminiscent of the old hospitals. Laying on a medical gurney, he leaned his head back to see all the medical displays behind him.  
"We were worried you wouldn't wake up. You were out cold when you arrived." She walked over to one of the displays. "Well your vitals seem to be ok. But you are going to need to stay here for a while longer."  
"But I have to go see Commander Oliver…" John tried to sit up, only to be pulled back down by the pain in his shoulder.  
"No you need to stay here. You took a nasty blow to the shoulder. It cut straight to the bone. I did all I could, but you need some time to heal. Commander Oliver knows of the situation."  
John sighed. "I am really going to get it now."  
The woman looked at him, feeling bad for his situation. She suddenly smiled, "Well if you are in such a bad mood, I guess I should just tell your visitors to leave."  
"Visitors?"  
"Yes." She smiled again. "Four cadets are here to see you." She walked towards the door. "They have been here everyday waiting for you to wake up." She walked outside and looked down the hall. "He's awake."  
John heard people running down the hall. He could only smile as he saw Rachel, Katherine, Brian, and Barry running towards him.  
"He's ok." Brian gave a sigh of relief.  
"Thank heaven." Katherine looked up at him and smiled.  
Rachel walked up to him, smiling. "I am glad you are ok."  
John smiled back, then yelled out in pain as Rachel punched him in the chest.  
"HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?"  
The entire room fell silent. Rachel looked around her. "I mean us… how could you do that us?"  
The doctor chuckled to herself and left the room silently.  
"Ya man," Barry said, "You had us worried sick. We didn't know if you were going to make it."  
"You must have taken a serious beating to be out of two days." Katherine chimed in.  
"What happened?" Brian asked.  
John grew quiet and began to ru his shoulder. "I was attacked…."  
"By how?" asked Rachel.  
Just as John was about to answer, the door to the room burst open as Commander Oliver and two other men walked into the room.  
"Do you know the trouble you caused?" Oliver said as he walked up to the bed, looking as if he was going to strangle John.  
"Commander calm down." One of the men with him grabbed his shoulder, holding him back. "This is not his fault."  
"Not his fault? He was the guard on duty. It was his responsibility to guard that lab."  
"Yes he was on duty," said the other man, "but we all know cadets are given guard duty due to there inexperience. Isn't that right, commander?"  
Oliver took a deep breath, then relaxed. "Yes sir."  
"Good." The man walked up to John's bedside. John saluted the man "Sir."  
"At ease, cadet. I am Commissioner Archer..." He turned towards the man standing behind Commander Oliver. "And this is Commander Lexington, in charge of lab security."  
Commander Lexington stepped forward, "Son, we just want to know what happened in the lab that night."  
Commander Lexington turned towards the other cadets. "Cadets, you are to report to your duties immediately."  
"But sir…" Rachel began to speak, but was cut off by Commander Oliver.  
"No buts! DISMISSED!"  
The cadets had no choice but to follow orders. They saluted the commissioner and commanders, and then left the room.  
"Now," Commander Lexington turned back John, "We need to know exactly what happened."  
John sighed to himself, and then began to explain what happened.  
…………………………………………………………………….  
The four friends waited outside the medical bay doors.  
"What got Oliver so wound up?" asked Brian as he paced up and down the hallway.  
"I don't know, but it has to be something big." Said Barry as he snuck a look into the medical bay. "They have been in there for over an hour."  
"The commissioner was there. Something big must have happened." Rachel was leaning against the wall, arms crossed across her chest.  
"Don't worry Rachel. John will be fine," Katherine gave her friend a reassuring hug, "and when they leave, we can find out what happened for ourselves."  
No sooner as she said this, the door to John's room opened and the three officials walked out.  
"They just walked out. Down the hallway!" Barry motion down the corridor. The friends ran down the hallway and hit around the corner. They watched as Oliver, Archer, and Lexington exited the medical bay. They began walking down the hall, and as soon as they were out of site, the friends quickly made their way back to the medical bay and made their way to John's room.  
"I hope no one saw us." Rachel looked down the hall as she quietly closed the door.  
"Took you guys long enough." The friends turned to see John on his feet.  
"John what are you doing on your feet?" Katherine looked in surprise as John walked towards them.  
"It's going to take a lot more then that to keep me….." John suddenly lost his balance and began to fall. He quickly grabbed onto a nearby chair to support himself.  
"Ok," he said as he took a seat, "maybe not so much."  
Rachel gave him a dirty look for worrying her.  
"So what was that all about?" asked Brian.  
John sighed. "They wanted to know what happened that night," he looked up at his friends, "just like you do, I suspect."  
"Well," Barry walked over to John, "of course. It put you into a coma for two days and has left that entire part of the academy off limits to all personal."  
"I really wish I could have stopped him," John grabbed his shoulder again.  
"Stop who?"  
"Well, let's start of the beginning." John began to tell his friends what happened.  
...

"Mutants?" Rachel cried in surprise.  
"Yes mutants, and keep it down. Oliver told me if I told anyone about this I could get kicked out of the academy."  
"I know that mutant and human relations have never been all that great, but to break into Time Force Academy..." Brian began to get worried.  
"Guys," John motioned for his friend to come closer, "This is something bigger then any of us have ever seen. I think this is bigger then Ransik's escape."  
…………………………………………………………………………………………….  
"Mutants broke into the lab?" said Commander Oliver. "How can that happen?" He began to pace around his office.  
"You know mutant violence has been on the rise since the Future Protectorate started it campaign against Time Force." Commander Lexington responded. "It doesn't explain how they were able to make it that close to the labs."  
"That is not the point of the matter." said Commissioner Archer. "They broke in and stole the experimental time gate. Getting it back is our prime concern."  
"You do understand what this means don't you?" Archer looked at Oliver and Lexington.  
"Yes sir. The Universal Ranger program may have to be activated sooner then we planned." Oliver turned towards a monitor on his desk. On the monitor a series of scans were being displayed, one labeled "Time Alert".


	5. A Theft in Time

Two days after John's release from the medical bay, the boys meet in the mess hall.  
"So how are you feeling?" Brian took a seat next to John.  
"Well…" John began to answer when Barry suddenly walked out behind him and hit him on his right shoulder.  
"He is fine, remember? "This is nothing but a flesh wound"." He laughed as he took a seat. "Right?"  
John only cringed as he grabbed his wounded shoulder. "Do you think Oliver would mind if he just lost _ONE_ cadet?" He gave Barry an evil stare.  
The three laughed.  
"What's so funny?" The boys turned to see Rachel and Katherine walking to their table.  
"John's got his humor back." Barry laughed as he avoided a playful punch from John.  
"Well, by the looks of it, you seem to be back to normal." The two girls sat down, Rachel taking a seat next to John.  
"Yep," said John, "As good as new." He flexed his muscles to show his strength.  
The girls began to giggle and laugh. "What?"  
"Nothing," said Katherine, between giggles, "nothing…"  
Suddenly, an alarm sounded. Everyone in the mess mall froze.  
"What's going on?" Rachel began to look around.  
"I don't know but it must be…." Brian was interrupted by a loud voice.  
"This is Commander Oliver. All personnel report to your stations immediately. This is not a test. All personnel report to your stations immediately! All cadets return to your posts and await orders from your superiors."  
Brian looked towards the group, "…big".  
"This has to have something to do with that break-in." John jumped up out of his chair.  
"John, you don't know that." Barry, along with the rest of the table, stood up with him.  
"No. It has to be."  
"John, Barry's right. You don't know what is going on." Katherine added.  
"You are right." John looked down for a second. "I better ask someone who does." John suddenly ran towards the door.  
"John!" Rachel started after him, followed by the rest of the team.  
……………………………………………………………………………….

Commander Oliver looked around the command center. Since the alarm had gone off, he had the entire command center team working on finding the disturbance. Time Force was able to find the time signature of the Time Gate in the time stream. They were not able to pinpoint exactly what time or place it originated form, or when or where it was going."Sir! We have found it! We found the time signature!"  
"_or so we thought._" Oliver quickly made his way over to one of the officers at one of the consoles. "Where did it come from?"  
"Sorry sir, but we weren't able to find where it originated from, but we were able to find its destination." He read the console screen again. "The year is 1994. The location…. Oh no."  
"What is it?" Oliver looked over his shoulder.  
"The location… is Angel Grove."  
Oliver read the read out again. What the officer said was true. Oliver knew why the mutant went there.

"They are trying to take us out by making sure we never start, aren't they?" said a voice behind Oliver.  
Oliver turned around to see John standing behind him. "What are you doing here? You are not allowed in …"  
"I'm right aren't I?  
Oliver grew quiet. _"This cadet is smarter then he lets on._" He walked back to the console. "Yes. We always had a feeling this might happen if they got a hold of time travel technology again. The learned from Ransik's mistake."

"John" The others finally caught up to John. They began to look around in surprise.  
"I have never seen this place so busy before…" Rachel looked at all the people at consoles and running around.  
John and Oliver ignored them and just looked at each other.  
"Sir," John finally spoke up, "I request permission to travel back and capture the mutant."  
Oliver looked shocked at first. Brian's jaw fell open and the others just stared at John.  
Oliver face contoured in anger. "Request **DENIED**!" He turned away from John and back to the officer at the console. "Contact Commissioner Archer now!"  
"Why sir?" John walked back up to Oliver.  
"Why?" Oliver turned back to John and the others. "You are not trained to fight mutants. You are a cadet. Beyond that, only Time Force Officers are allowed to travel through time."  
"Sir all cadets have been trained in Time Ship piloting. I could easily take…"  
"A time ship is not what is needed here!"  
"But sir, we have no other way to go back. The Time Gate was stolen. Unless…"  
Oliver shot John a dirty look. "Keep it to yourself, cadet."  
John realized he was right. "You have another gate. Sir let me go through, please!"  
"You are not a trained Time Force Operative! You are not able to handle a situation like this."  
"And staying here staring at data is any better? I am in the Universal Ranger program because I passed all the tests needed to become a Time Force officer" John was beginning to get angry.  
Oliver was starting to lose his patience. "**CADET**, you are not a Ranger yet and if I have my way, you never will be!"  
John was taken back by Oliver's comment. "But sir! I know the mutants who attacked. I saw how they fought. I can help stop them"  
"You," Oliver started at John, "are the reason this happened. I will not let you jeopardize this mission. You are not a Ranger, you are not an officer. Now get out of here before I have you forcibly removed!" Oliver stormed off back towards the consoles. "Begin a deep time scan immediately. I want to know exactly when that mutant is, NOW!"

John walked out of the command center, defeated. His friends followed behind him.  
"John…" Rachel walked up beside him, "Its ok."  
"Ya," Brian walked up on his other side, "He is just stressed."  
"No." John head remained facing the floor. "He is right. I am not a ranger."  
"You will be John. We all will be." Barry looked a little bummed.  
"It doesn't matter if we _will_ be Rangers." John threw his head up. A fire burned in his eyes. "You don't understand. The mutants went back to 1994."  
"So?" Katherine looked confused.  
"They went to Angel Grove."  
"I still don't understand."  
"1994…" Brian began to think outlaid. "Angel Grove… Wait! Isn't that…?"  
John nodded his head.  
"What is it?" Katherine looked at the two."  
"When I was fighting one of the mutants, he said something about Time Force coming to an end."  
"And what does that have to do with…?"  
"You didn't pay much attention in history class did you? 1994, Angel Grove:" Brian looked at Rachel with a disappointed look.  
"I still don't get it" Katherine looked confused as ever.  
Brian sighed. "The first appearance of the Power Rangers."  
"Oh….." Katherine though about it. "OH!"  
John nodded. "They went back to destroy the original Power Rangers. If they don't exist anymore, then we don't exist."  
"We got to something! Tell Oliver or …something!" Rachel turned back to the command center.  
"Oliver already knows. He is just sitting around waiting to get all the information he needs to send a team of Rangers back."  
John clenched his fist, "And that should be us."  
"John, we aren't rangers." Brian repeated. "There is nothing we can do."  
John walked away from the group. Oliver's words still echoed in his mind. _"You are NOT a ranger, and you never will be!"_  
"If Oliver won't handle this, then I am going to." Said John.  
"What are you talking about?" asked Brian, a little worried.  
"Nothing….." John turned away from his friends. "I'll see you guys later. There is something I have to take care of." John began to run down the hall.  
"John, wait!" Brian called out as John turned the corner.  
He turned back towards the others. Katherine had a worried look on her face. "What do you think he's going to do?"  
"I'm not sure." Brian looked back in the direction John had run. "  
"I'm worried." Rachel wrapped her arms around her chest.  
"So am I." Brian took one last look behind him.  
……………………………………………………..

John peered out of a door and looked down the hall. When he saw no one was around, he turned back into the room. He made his way to his bed and grabbed the Time Force badge off his nightstand."_I hope Brian doesn't wake up."_ John thought to himself. "_I can't have him stop me._"  
He took one last look into the room to see Brian out cold in his bed, and then quietly made his way out of his room. When he entered the hallway, he was happy to see no one was around.  
"The guards already did their rounds. Should be safe for now."  
The door to his quarters shut itself, making a loud hissing noise as the door slid close. John spun around and "Shushed" the door, hoping that it didn't wake Brian up.  
"Well, better get going." He ran down the hall, stopping at each corner, checking to see if anyone was there.  
He stopped near the Research wing. He looked down the hall to see two guards stationed outside the lab that had been broken into. John rubbed his shoulder as it began to hurt.  
He quickly ran down a dimly lit hallway towards another on of the labs. He stopped at a door at the end of the hallway. He walked over to the panel next to it and placed his hand on it. The panel scanned his hand and responded: "Invalid Scan."  
John groaned in disappointment. "Stupid door!" He quickly looked around to see that no one heard him. When he saw that he was alone, he bent down and pulled a wall panel beneath the scanner away, exposing a mass of wires and a numeric pad. He began disconnecting a few of the wires and plugging them into the pad. John let out a short, and quiet, yelp of pain as he was shocked by one of the exposed wires. _"Brian is always better at this then I am._"  
After a few more minutes, the pad lit up and the scanner spoke: "Code Bypass Activated. Please enter code"  
John smiled to himself. "Good, now to crack the code."  
John began punching in random sets of numbers into the pad. Each time he entered a new set, the scanner would reply, "Invalid Code".  
John began to grow angry after each attempt to open the door was met with failure.  
"There has to be thousands of combinations of numbers!" John threw his hands up in disgust.  
"Actually," came a voice from behind him, "Its five thousand forty combinations."  
John turned around to see Brian standing behind him. "That's if you keep using four-digit codes, which they would never use."  
"Brian what are you doing here?" John climbed to his feet.  
"Making sure you don't get yourself in to trouble." Brian bent down and fiddled with the wires.  
"What are you doing? You said it yourself; there are over five thousand combinations. No human could…"  
The scanner pad suddenly interrupted him. "Pass code accepted. Opening Door"  
"…figure it out…" John fell silent as the doors opened.  
"Ya it would, if you didn't already know it." Brian smiled as he got up.  
He walked into the lab. "Are you coming?" he called to John.  
John snapped back into reality and quickly followed. "How did you figure…"  
"It out?" finished Brian. "I cracked the code for the locks months ago. They don't use a very good algorithm to create the pass code. I figured them all out in about … three days."  
John was surprised. "Why did you find them?"  
Brian looked around for the wall. "I got bored."  
John could only smile and shake his head. "Only you would break the highest levels of security at Time Force when he was bored.  
"Hey what can I say?" Brian replied, still moving across the wall. His hand fell on something, "There is it." He waved his hand over then sensor and the lights in the lab.

The light came to life as they lit up the room. John saw a few tables, like in the other lab room. Unlike that room, there were computer consoles and equipment around the entire room.  
"Oh my god! Look at this stuff!" Brian ran towards the consoles like a child on Christmas day.  
"Brian, keep it down. We don't want to get caught." John looks outside the door.  
"But look at all this stuff! Do you know what I could do with all this stuff?" He started punching keys on one of the consoles.  
"Stop messing with that stuff and help me find where they put the gate." John began walking around the room. He walked behind the desks into a small room behind them and only found more equipment. Disgusted he walked back out into the lab. "Where is it?"

Suddenly a call came out from the hallway. "Who's in there?"  
John and Brian stopped dead in there tracks and looked at each other and nodded.  
John ran for the lighting panel and shut it off. He hid behind the wall next to the door. Brian dove behind one of the tables.  
They heard footsteps from the hallway, coming towards the open door.  
John held his breath as moved away from the door towards the corner of the wall. He quickly hid behind it just as the footsteps came to the door.  
The lights suddenly turned on. The footsteps walked towards the middle of the room and stopped. After stopping, they turned back towards the door. John let out a sigh of relief.  
Suddenly they stopped. John waited in fear as he heard the footsteps begin again, this time in his direction. They stopped a few feet away from him. He held his breath.  
Barry suddenly jumped out in front of him and yelled "BOO!"  
John's heart stopped beating for a second. After he composed himself, John jumped at Barry. "ARE YOU CRAZY?"  
Barry only laughed. "A little,"  
Brian ran over to the two of them and tried to pull John off Barry. A struggle started between the three of them.

"Will you boys ever just behave?"  
The three stopped their struggle and turned there heads towards the door to see Rachael and Katherine watching them.  
"…um…. Hi?" John said with a weak smile.  
Katherine began to laugh. Rachael just let out a sad sigh. "Just get off each other and let's find that thing." She walked towards them.  
John let go of Barry and straightened himself out. "It's not here."  
"What?"  
"It's not here. I looked everywhere."  
"I might be able to find it if I do a little searching on the network?" said Brian as he walked over to the consoles. He took a seat and began working.  
John walked over to one of the tables and leaned against it. He closed his eyes and sighed.  
"Ok," he said as he opened his eyes, "Why are you guys here?"  
"Well, I followed you guys." Barry walked over to another table and sat down on top of it.  
"And we followed him," said Rachael.  
"Not like it was hard as loud as he was," said Katherine.  
"No. WHY are you here?"  
"Well," Rachael walked up to him, "We knew what you were going to do, and we wanted to help."  
"You guys know what will happen to you if we get caught right?"  
"Of course."  
"And you don't care?"  
Barry jumped down from the table. "Nope."  
"We are a team," Brian said from the console, "we won't you do it alone."  
Katherine and Rachael nodded in agreement.  
John could only smile as he looked at his friends.

"Found it!" Brian yelled from the console. John and the others walked over to him.  
"Where is it?" said John as he looked over his shoulder.  
"You're not going to believe this. It's in the Command Center."  
"What?" Barry scratched his head, "I never saw it in there."  
"Its here," Brian pointed at the screen, "in a secure area that rises into the Command Center from the floor."  
"So what's the problem? Let's go." John began to turn around when Brian grabbed his arm.  
"There is one catch. You need a morpher to get past the security and activate the gate."  
"Great. So what do we do now?" Barry threw his hands up and walked over to one of the walls, leaning against it. "Where are we going to get those?"  
"It gets better. They have to be designed to open it. No normal one will do."  
"Ya like that is going to happen," John walked away from the console. "We will never find them."  
Brian began typing in some code into the console. "Never say …," he pushed one last key, "never." He smiled as the panel Barry was leaning on began to move upwards.  
Barry jumped back as the others walked over to see what was happening. The wall pulled up into the wall, revealing a hidden compartment. A tray came out of the panel, containing five metal boxes. Each was colored, and had one side open. The Time Force Seal was on top of them.  
"Way to go Brian!" John smiled and walked over to the tray.  
As John picked up the red one, Brian made an observation. "Those don't look like normal Time Force morphers."  
"Actually, I think they are based off of the Quantum Morpher. It has a control box until it reads in the DNA of the user."  
Barry just looked at John "How do you know all this stuff?"  
"Not my fault you don't pay attention in history class." John put his forearm into the box.  
"Wait we should," Brian was cut short by a bright red light that enveloped the box. As the light died, John saw a morpher on his forearm.

The morphers were rectangular shaped. The bottom was cut inwards, making it a bit shorter then the top. All the edges were rounded, with what looked like the outline of a time force badge at the top, making a slightly buffered edge. The badge was black and smooth. The main body was outlined by a think black line, with a smaller red line outlining it. These colored lines meet at the middle and moved up towards the badge shape. On the left side of the line, there was a thin black thunderbolt running down from top to bottom. On the left side of the morpher rested 3 buttons. One the right there was a solid buton, and below it some kind of port.

"Ok, these definitely don't look like any morpher I have seen." John started in awe at his new morpher.  
"Must be a new design. This is a research lab after all" Brian started along with John.  
"Sweet!" Barry grabbed the blue box and slid his arm in. A blue light enveloped the box. It died, revealing another one of the morphers.  
"Be careful!" Brian yelled out.  
"Calm down," said Katherine as she took the yellow box. "If John did it and ended up ok," she stopped at a yellow light blinded her, "Then we will be ok too."  
"Rachael was next to take a box: the pink one. Brian, after making sure the others were ok, took the green box.  
After a few minutes of amazement, John snapped out of it and made his way towards the door.  
"Wait, where do you think you are going?" Rachael hurried after him.  
"Where else: the Command Center. We need go back and stop that mutant."  
"Yes, but not dressed like that?"  
John looked himself over. He was dressed in his Time Force uniform. "What's wrong with the way I am dressed?"  
"Nothing, if you want to stand out." Rachael walked over to the desk and picked up a backpack she had with her. "We need to fit in. If we go back in uniform, the mutant will know we are Time Force and run, not to mention that people will notice. If were are in disguise, we can fit in more and get around a lot easier."  
She opened the bag. "Here," she threw a mess of clothes at John. "Put those on" She pulled out 4 more piles of clothes. "I got stuff for all of us."  
John looked at the clothes and shrugged. He walked off to the back room. "Where did you get these?"  
"Ya," said Barry as he grabbed a pile of clothes and followed John. "These things are ancient."  
"I did a little research in the archives. I found these if a file on style and clothing during that time period." She threw Brian his clothes and pointed to the back room. As he walked in, the girls began to change into their "new" clothes.

"Hey give me the green shirt," said Brian.  
"Why?" asked John.  
"Because I want it to match my morpher."  
John and Barry just started at Brian for a moment. "What?"  
"Nothing," Barry shook his head as he placed a white shirt over his head.  
"Here," John handed Brian the green T-shirt. "You're lucky you found the morphers. I like green."  
"Ya, but who ever heard of a Red Ranger in green?"

The boys walked out of the back from looking themselves over. John wore a red long sleeve shirt and khaki pants. Barry wore a white dress shirt with a blue T-shirt underneath with faded blue jeans. Brian wore a plan green T-Shirt and jeans.  
"So how do we look?" John asked as he turned towards the girls.  
Rachael wore a tight pink top with long pink pants. She had her hair running down her back.  
Katherine took a look back from the door. She wore a yellow headband with a yellow shirt. She wore tight jeans. "Good, I guess." She looked back outside.  
"Thanks," Barry rolled his eyes.  
John looked down at his morpher again. "_Never thought I would be wearing on of these; at least not yet_."  
"Ok," Katherine walked back into the room, "The coast is clear, let's go."  
John nodded and made his way towards the door. The other followed.

The group made their way to the Command Center, avoiding the guards as best they could.  
"Ok," said John as he looked around the last corner, "The guard just left to do his round." He quickly made his was around the corner, followed by Brian, Barry, Rachael, and Katherine. After they were in the Command Center, he shut the door behind them.  
"What did you do that for?" asked Rachael.  
John punched a few buttons on the panel next to the door, "So we can be in private." The panel flashed "Door Locked."  
"OK Brian, do you thing."  
Brian walked up to one of the consoles and began to punch a few buttons. Suddenly, 4 red alarm lights went off.  
"Brian!"  
"It's ok. It's part of the Power up sequence." He pointed towards the middle of the room as the floor opened up.  
The team looked on as a large Time Gate rose from the floor. There was no command console connected to this one.  
"Ok, so how do we get this thing working?" asked Barry.  
"Already on it," Brian turned back to the console and entered some more code in.  
Suddenly, an alarm sounded.  
"Ok, I know that isn't part of the power up sequence," said John.  
"It's done. All we have to do is activate the gate with the morphers and we are set." Brian hit one last button on the console and walked over to the gate. The others followed.

"Stop right there!"  
John looked behind him to see Commander Oliver standing behind, accompanied by 20 Time Force Officers. "Ok this isn't good."  
"Stand down Cadets! You are surrounded!"  
The group looked around as Time Force officers surrounded the room.  
John looked around him, then directly into Oliver's eyes. "We can't do that sir."  
"I said **STAND DOWN!**"  
"Sorry sir," John raised his forearm and pressed one of the buttons on the side of the morpher. The gate jumped to life as a black void formed within it. "I can't do that."  
John turned around to his friends, "Go!"  
"But…" Rachael began to speak.  
"GO! Before they can shut down the portal!"  
Brian nodded and ran into the void. Katherine followed.  
Barry looked up at the void. "This better be worth it!" He jumped in.  
"John…" Rachael hesitated.  
"It's ok; I will be right behind you!" John turned back to Oliver.  
Rachael took one last look back, then jumped into the portal.  
"John!" Oliver called out, "if you go into that gate, you will be in criminal violation of Time Force protocol. Stand Down!"  
John took one last look around the Command Center as more guards filled in around the circular room.  
"Sorry sir. But I have a job to do." John turned around and ran towards the gate.  
"SHUT IT DOWN!" yelled Oliver. One of the officers ran to the console and entered in the deactivation code.  
John saw the void begin to shrink as he ran towards it. He drove towards the gate just as the void began to disappear totally. He entered it as the last of the void dissolved.  
"NO!" Oliver ran towards the gate. He turned back towards the officers, "I want to know were and when he is NOW!"


	6. Unforeseen Consequences

_Arthur's Note: I am sorry it took me so long to get this fic started again. I have been working on it since 2005, but due to personal problems, I haven't gotten around to getting chapters finished and posted. Hopefully, this will be the end of that. I plan on getting the fic done by the end of the year as I am halfway done with the last chapter. I currently have the rest done; I just need to finish editing them. So I hope you guys enjoy the next two chapters and stick around for the exciting conclusion!! Please R&R!!_

All John could see was an endless blackness before him. He looked around him and saw nothing. He could not even see his own hands. Then, suddenly, a bright light light surrounded him, blinding him. He suddenly felt like he was falling, which was followed by pain as his entire body hit something hard.  
"Ow..."  
"Wow," said a voice from in front of him, "nice landing."  
"I give it a five out of ten. No Style," said another, followed by girlish giggles.  
John pulled himself up and looked in the direction of the voices. He saw Barry, Brian looking down at him. He groaned and pulled himself to his feet.  
"Cute... Really cute," was his response.  
As John stood up, he saw two figures behind the boys. He could not make out who they were. Everything was blurry.  
"Damn it. I can't see! Something must have gone wrong when I went through the gate."  
The giggles that John heard turned into full out laughter.  
John grew frustrated. "Girls! Its not funny!" He spun around trying to find the girls, but could only find the two figures behind the boys. "Something is wrong with me!"  
"There definitely wrong with you all right," John heard Rachel say, "but its not your eyes."  
John squinted as he saw one of the figures bend down, then walk towards him. As it got closer, he made out the smiling face of Rachel.  
"Here, you may need these." Rachel placed something into John's hand.  
"Huh?" John looked down to see what was in his hands. Barry began to laugh as he saw John stating at the object in his hand.  
As John started to make out what they were, he let out another groan. "Oh... this NOT good."  
"Come on, we are almost there." said Rachel. She turned to see John walking closely behind her, his hand on her shoulder.  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Barry continued laughing as the group made there way to a building. " I cannot believe you broke your glasses coming through the gate."  
"That is what you get for trying to make a dramatic entrance," said Katherine as she walked behind Barry.  
"I told you," said John, turning around to face her, " I had no choice. The gate was about to close; I HAD to jump through it."  
"Of course you did," she said sarcastically. "And I am over here." She poked John's shoulder.  
"Huh??" John squinted and made out the faint image of Barry's face as he burst out laughing again.  
"Ga..." he sighed, and turned back towards Rachel, making sure he had a firm grip on her shoulder.  
"Oh leave him be," said Rachel, "I think he's got it hard enough right now." She let out a slight giggle. "You know, with being blind as a bat and all."  
The entire group began to laugh, except John, who only squeezed Rachel's shoulder harder until her laughter subsided.  
"Just calm down, we're here" Rachel pointed to a sign on the side of a building the group was approaching. The others took looked at the sign as John tried to make it out. With much trouble, he made out the words "Angel Grove Youth Center".

As the group walked out of a nearby hallway, they found themselves in a rather large room. To the left was a juice bar, while on the right were many pieces of gym equipment. Rachel led John up the step and over ​to the rounded counter and helped him take a seat. The others followed and sat down next to them.  
"So what do we do now?" asked Katherine.  
"First, " said John, "we need to get my glasses fixed so I can actually see where the heck we are. I am the only one who knows this time period well enough to know if we made it."  
"Ya, but how?" asked Barry.  
"Well..." John started to reply, but he was interrupted by a man behind the counter.  
"What can I get you guys today?"  
The man wore a bright Hawaiian shirt , along with an apron, around his rather large body. He smiled at the group, then looked strangely at John, who was squinting at him.  
Rachel elbowed John in the side, then turned to the man, "Sorry, sir. He didn't mean to be rude. He .."  
"Broke his glasses and can't see a thing, right?" The man asked with a smile.  
"Well, yes actually." Rachel looked surprised.  
The man laughed, "I've seen that look before. A friend of mine has the same problem," He walked over to the other side of the counter and opened a drawer. When he returned, he has a roll of tape in his hand. "Let me see your glasses."  
John placed the two pieces of his glasses on the counter. "What are you going to do?"  
"Fix them, of course." The man smiled as he took the glasses and took a piece of tape from the roll. In a few moments, he handed the glasses back to John.  
"Its a quick fix, but its better then nothing."  
Barry tried to hold back his laughter as John put on his glasses. "What?" asked John.  
"Nothing, nothing at all," Barry said in between his laughter.  
John put his glasses back on, relieved to be able to see again.. Then he saw what Barry was laughing about. In the middle of his glasses was a fairly large piece of tape, holding his glasses together.  
"Like I said, its only a quick fix, but it should get you through the day."  
John turned to the man and smiled. "Thanks..." John made to shake the mans hand stopped, grasping at words.  
"Ernie," said the man, shaking John's hand.  
"Ernie..." John repeated. He knew he that name from this time period, but he couldn't think of why it was so important.  
"So, what brings you kids the the youth center?" Ernie turned his attention to the group.  
"Well, we are ..." John looked at the others, trying to come up with an answer.  
"on school trip!" said Brian quickly.  
"Oh really? Were do you guys go to school?"  
"Um ..." Brian tried to come up with a good answer.  
"The Academy!" shouted Barry. The others turned to him and shot him a dirty look. "What?"  
"Oh! You mean Lexington Academy!" said Ernie, "That's a really nice school. Your parents must be proud of you guys for getting in."  
John started to breath again. "Ya, they sure are."  
"Well, if you guys need anything, I'll be here." Ernie began to walk to the other side of the counter to help some customer.  
"Thanks Ernie." said Katherine, who got up and motioned the group to a nearby table.

"Ok, that was close." She shot a look at Barry.  
"What?" asked Barry defensively. " I still don't know what I did wrong."  
Katherine sighed, "I am not surprised."  
"Relax, both of you," said John, "We need to figure out what we need to do next."  
"Well we already know that much," said Brian. "We need to find the mutant."  
"Ya but how are we going to do that?" asked Rachel. "We don't have any kind of equipment to track it with, and its not like we know the area."  
"Actually," John chimed in, "I know most of the important area in Angel Grove. Most of the Ranger's major battles took place at those locations, so we have an idea were the mutant is going to strike." He looked around to make sure no one had heard him. "I say we leave now and try to find him quickly."  
"I agree," Rachel stood up, followed by the others.  
"Hey! Where are you guys going?" They turned around to see Ernie calling out to them.  
"Sorry Ernie! We just saw the time." John pointed to him morpher, then quickly pulled his arm back to hide it. "We gotta get going."  
"Oh OK," Ernie turned around for a moment to grab a dish rag. "See you guys..." he turned back to the group, only to see them run out into the hallway, "later." He shrugged, and started to wipe down the counter. "They are just as bad as Jason and his group. Always disappearing."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

After a few hours, the group found themselves in Angel Grove Park.  
"Ya," said Barry in between breaths, "'It will definitely be at the High School.' you said"  
"Hey," said John, laying up against a tree for support, "its not my fault that guy though we were supposed to be in detention."  
"Well, lets just be happy that we got away." Rachel sat down next to John, wiping her brow.  
"So," Katherine said, "we have checked the Youth Center, high school, museum, amusement park, and the beach; And we STILL haven't found the mutant yet."  
"I don't know why we haven't found it yet," said John, "Maybe Commander Oliver had the wrong time down."  
"I doubt that," she said, looking around the area, "I am starting to think that the mutant knows we are here and went into hiding."  
"You really think so?" John pulled himself to his feet.  
"What over explanation do we have?"  
"Well," Barry stepped forward, "I say that we should just get out of here. We can wait at the Youth Center and wait for any news about a monster attack. That's bound to be our mutant."  
"We can't do that," said John, "If we do that, that means the Rangers of this time period will already be there. We are not to engage them, remember?"  
Barry walked towards the tree John was under. "Well, unless that mutant just happens to show up right now and start blowing stuff up, I want to hear if you got a better idea!"

Suddenly, a large explosion came from where Barry had just been standing. He slowly turned around. "Um .. ok. That works too."  
The others jumped to their feet and ran towards the explosion.  
"What was that?" asked Rachel.  
"I think the better question to ask is," Brain said, as he pointed in front of them, "is what is that?"  
Before them stood a large monster. It had the head of a pig, but a large, muscled humanoid body. It was clad in futuristic battle armor and carried two large hand-cannons in its hands. Strapped to its back were a collection of other firearms from laser riffles to pistols. It was laughing as it continued to fire its hand-cannons, scaring off the people in the park.  
"Come out and play Rangers!!!!" it shouted as it blasted away a large tree.  
"I guess that is our guy, huh?" asked Barry.

John turned towards Barry, "You think?"  
"There's no time for arguing!" Rachel turned towards the two, "We need to stop him before he hurts someone."  
"She's right," he said. "Ok guys, lets do this!"  
John, followed by the others, ran towards the monster.

"Hold it right there!!!" he called out to the monster, who quickly faced him.  
"Ah! It looks like you finally showed up Rangers." it said, an air of cockiness in its voice.  
"You are under arrest for endangering the time line and civilians!" John pulled out his Time Force badge and showed it to the monster.  
"Time Force! How did you get here?"  
"It doesn't matter! We are here to take you back!"  
The monster laughed, snorting all the while. "If you think you can take Gun Hog in, you got another thing coming !" It raised its guns towards the group and fired. The blast threw them them to the ground. Quickly getting to his feet, John raised his morpher. "Ok. We tired it the easy way."  
The others joined him. "Lets to do it guys!" They moved their right foot back and raised the morpher in front of them. "TIME FOR..." They stepped forward with their right foot and raised their right hand to the morpher, touching its face. "TIME FORCE!!!!"  
Gun Hog just looked at the Rangers, waiting for them to morph. But it never came. He only saw the five standing there, staring at him. He began to laugh again, almost dropping his guns.  
"Whats going on?" John looked down at his morpher. He turned to the others, seeing them just as confused as he was. He raised the morpher in front of him again as he stepped back on his right foot. "TIME FOR ... TIME FORCE!!!" He looked at himself, and saw that he was still in his normal clothes. "Brian, what is going on??"  
"I don't know! That should have worked. All Time Force morpher require DNA input to activate.  
"Whats wrong? Your toys not working?" The group turned towards Gun Hog, who now had his guns raised towards them. He began laughing again as he fired at the Rangers. They were not able to dodge the blast and were thrown back several feet. Landing hard, John let out a yell of pain. He climbed to his feet to see Gun Hog training his sights on them again. This time I won't miss!!"

John dove back down to the ground, waiting for the blast to hit him, but it never came. He slowly pulled himself off the ground and looked towards Gun Hog. He was dumbfounded by the sight before him. The Red, along with the Blue and Black Rangers were holding Gun Hog back. The Blue Ranger had one arm as the Black Ranger has the other, with the Red Ranger grabbed him from behind.  
"Its them..."  
"Its who?" asked Barry as he and the others picked themselves of the ground.  
"The Power Rangers..."

The Pink Ranger suddenly ran up to the group. "Are you guys ok?" she asked.  
"Um ya.." John could not take his eyes of her, "I think so."  
"Good. Now you guys need to get out of here, NOW!" She helped John to his feet as the Yellow Ranger helped the others. She pointed to a nearby clearing. "Go!"  
"But..." John tried to say something but the Yellow Ranger cut him off.  
"No 'but's. go NOW!!"  
John could only nod as Rachel grabbed him arm and pulled him towards the clearing, following the others.  
The Yellow and Pink Rangers ran to the other Rangers to help. The Blue and Black Rangers and now been thrown off by Gun Hog, who had gotten a hold of the Red Ranger and threw him towards the others.  
"This guy it tough," he said.  
"You can definitely say that again," said the Black Ranger.  
Gun Hog let out a yell as he grabbed a cannon from his back and fired it at the Rangers. They dove out of the way, then jumped towards him, weapons drawn.  
The Black Ranger swung his ax, but Gun Hog blocked it with his cannon and smashed the head of the cannon into his chest, throwing him back.  
The Blue and Yellow Rangers attacked together with their staff and daggers, but Gun Hog blocked them and launched a spin kick towards them, throwing them back. The Pink Ranger fired her arrows at him, only to have them shot of of the sky by his pistols.  
"Do you really think you can stop me, Rangers?" He let out an evil laugh.  
"You better believe it!" The Red Ranger jumped towards him, sword drawn. Gun Hog dodge the attack and launched his own, swinging the cannon at the Ranger.

"They are too underpowered," John said as he saw the Rangers fighting Gun Hog. "We need to help them."  
"John we can't" Katherine said. "We can't morph. We can't fight him like this."  
"Well, we need to do something. I am not going to let him destroy them!" John tried to get up, but was held back by Brian.  
"John, there is nothing we can do. We have no way to fight. We could get killed out there."  
John threw Brian off him. "Well I would rather die fighting then let him win." He ran towards the ensuing battle.  
"John! Stop!!" called Rachel.

"Puny Rangers!" Gun Hog looked down at the fallen Rangers at his feet. "Kantor was right. You have no chance of stopping me!" He let out a laugh as he saw the Red Ranger trying to get to his feet.  
"I don't think so!!" Gun Hog stepped on his chest, pushing back towards the ground. "I came here on a mission, and I plan on finishing it." He pointed his cannon squarely at the Red Ranger. "Say Goodbye, Ranger!"  
As Gun Hog fired, he was thrown violently to the side. His shot missed its mark and hid the ground a few feet away from the Red Ranger's head. He looked up to see John land on the ground in front of him.  
"I don't think so, Gun Hog! You cannot get rid of us that easy!!" He looked down at the Red Ranger. "Don't worry. We are here to help." He turned back to Gun Hug and ran towards him, launching another kick.  
"Not this time!!" Gun Hog cried as he grabbed John's foot out of the air He laughed as he threw John to the side.  
"You are becoming a nuisance, Time Force," Gun Hog said angrily. He raised his cannon towards John. "Time to end your meddling." John tried to protect himself, knowing full well that nothing would stop the blast. He saw Gun Hog fire the cannon and braced for the attack. Suddenly a red blur jumped in front of him and took the attack. The Red Ranger flew back into John, knocking the both of them to the ground. More fire from Gun Hog's cannon landed near them. All John could hear were the blasts from the cannon and distant yells before blacking out.


	7. A Truth Discovered

John groaned in pain as he came to. He tried to climb to his feet, but grabbed his shoulder in pain. Looking as his hand, he saw no blood. Good, he thought to himself, at least the wound didn't open. He looked around his surroundings, noticing everything was blurred. He quickly moved his hand to his face, only to find his glasses missing again. Great, now I'm blind and don't know where I am. He slowly pulled himself to his feet. Last thing I remember was Gun Hog attacking me, and the Red Ranger jumping in front of me. After that... As he rose to his feet, he heard voices behind him. Turning around, he saw that he was at the back end of a large room. The front was brightly lighted, with a large column of blue light at its head. He could make out a number of figures there, so he made his way towards them. As he grew closer, he began to make out what the voices were saying.  
"We shouldn't have brought them here," said a male voice.  
"If we left them there, they would have been hurt if not worse," said another.  
"I agree. I don't think we had a choice," said a female voice.  
"I know, but we are putting Alpha and Zordon at risk, not to mention ourselves."  
As John heard the two names, he knew where he was. He quickened his pace toward the voices. Right as he was able to start making them out, he tripped on something and began to fall. He landed face first in front of five figures.  
"Ow..." John lifted himself up to his knees and rubbed his injured nose.  
Suddenly, he felt that he was being watched. He slowly looked around to see he was surrounded by the five Power Rangers, all of which were looking directly at him. "... Hi???" he said weakly.  
"Well, looks like he's finally awake," said the Black Ranger.  
"That's one less thing to worry about," said the Yellow Ranger.  
John said nothing, and only stared at the Rangers.  
"Are you ok?" asked the Pink Ranger.  
John quickly snapped out of his trance. "Ya I am ok." He quickly pulled himself to his feet, blushing.  
"That is good," she replied.  
"Well, since you are ok, I guess we can get you and your friends to someplace safe," said the Red Ranger.  
John quickly realized that he was alone with the Rangers. "Where are my friends?" he asked.

Before anyone could reply, a shrieking voice came from behind them. "Aie-ya-ya-yi-ya-yi! You cannot come in here."  
An female voice follow, "I don't care. You have kept us in the dark for too long. Literally! We want to see our friend."  
From the shadows came a small robot. He has a large saucer for a head. Following him was Rachel, followed by Brian, Barry, and Katherine.  
"Guys! You're ok!" John quickly made his way to his friends, almost falling again as he stepped down from a small ledge. Rachel quickly moved past the robot to the stumbling John. "Are you ok?"  
"Ya I am fine," said John. "Just can't see anything."  
"Here." Rachel handed John his glasses. "Luckily, they are not broken this time."  
John took the glasses from Rachel and put the on. The sight he saw before him was amazing. He was standing in the middle of the Power Rangers' Command Center.  
John's jaw fell open as he stared at all the equipment that surrounded him, ignoring the words of his friends. He turned towards them. "Do you guys know where we are? This is the Command Center!! The very first!!"  
The others feel silent. "Um.. John.."  
"This is amazing!" He turned towards a large glass globe behind them. "Its the Viewing Globe!" He quickly ran towards it. "Oh wow! This is great!" He slowly walked back towards his friends.  
Brian called out to his friend, "John..."  
Ignoring him, John continued his wonderment. "I have seen 3-D models and simulations of what this place looked like, but to actually be here.."

He was suddenly pulled back to reality by the voice of the Red Ranger, "What do you mean? You mean you have seen this place before?"  
John suddenly stopped walking and looked in front of him. He quickly realized he had said too much. Quickly, he tried to backpeddle his way out of the corner he had put himself into, "Well, not really, I mean you guys are the Power Rangers. You had to have some sort of HQ right?"  
"How did you know about the Viewing Globe?" asked the Blue Ranger.  
"Um... well.." John has no answer to that question and quickly made his way back to his friends.  
"and why were you trying to fight that monster?" asked the Yellow Ranger.  
John fell silent as he tried to come up with a reasonable answer.  
"Ok guys. Its time to spill it," said the Black Ranger as he stepped forward. "You have some explaining to do."  
John looked to his friends, hoping to get some help. All he got was looks of worry.  
Suddenly, a booming voice came from behind the Rangers. "Rangers, I believe I may know what they are hiding." The Rangers turned around to face the large pillar of light behind them. John looked up to the light to see a large face within it. It looked at John and his friends. "Welcome to the Command Center. I am Zordon."  
"Zordon! What are you doing?!?" cried the robot.  
"It is alright, Alpha. I believe they already know who we are. Don't you?" Zordon looked down at John.  
Slowly finding his voice again, John stepped forward. "Yes Zordon. We know about you, Alpha, and the Command Center. We know about everything."  
"John! What are you doing?" asked Brian as he walked forward.  
"Its too late to hide anything guys," replied John. "I had a feeling this would happen when we arrived. He knew we were here."  
Rachel and the others joined John and Brian. "What are you talking about?" she asked.  
"Ya, what do you mean?" the Red Rangers asked, worry in his voice.  
"What he means," answered Zordon, "is that I knew when he and his friends arrived in Angel Grove. In this time."

"'This time'? What do you mean Zordon?" asked the Blue Ranger.  
"What he means, Billy," said John, "is that he knows that we are not from this time."  
Billy slowed turned around to face John. "How do you know my name?"  
"We know all about you Billy. As well as Zack, Trini, Kimberly, and Jason. We know you are the Power Rangers."  
The Rangers fell silent hearing this. "But how?" Jason asked. "Zordon, how does he know who we are?"  
Zordon looked over his rangers. "As he said, he is not from this time. I believe he is from a time where your identities have been discovered. But that happens far into the future does it not?"  
John looked up at Zordon again, "Yes. The identities of all Rangers is withheld from public record until the year 2005."  
"2005? What?" Billy walked up to John. "You mean you are from twelve years in the future? Has human technology really advanced that far?"  
"No we are not from 2005. We are from the year 4000."  
Billy walked backwards, almost stumbling over Alpha. "The year 4000??"  
John let out a sigh, "Yes the year 4000." He looked at Billy, then shook his head. "Now that you guys know we know who you are, can you please drop your morphs? Its kinda of hard to talk to you guys like this."  
Jason turned to the other Rangers, slowly nodding. "Power down!" The five rangers returned to their normal forms. "So," said Jason, "You guys are from the future huh?"  
"Yes we are." replied John. "My name is John and this is," he turned towards his friends, "Rachel, Brian, Barry and Katherine."  
The others slowly stepped forward. "John, are you sure this is a good idea? If Oliver finds out..." asked Brian.  
"I think we are in enough trouble with Oliver right now. After taking the morphers and coming to this time, I doubt this will get us into any more." replied John.  
"Morphers?" asked Trini. "So that means you guys are..."  
"Yes," replied Zordon. "They are Power Rangers."

"Oh wow. This is nuts!" said Zack. "Rangers from the future!"  
"This is interesting." said Billy as he walked up to John. "So how does one travel through time? Strictly for the advancement of science, of course."  
"Oh!! Oh!! You have to tell me what the future is like!" Kimberly cried out as she ran over to the group.  
"Actually, we kind of can't." said Brian.  
A frown appeared on Kimberly's bright face. "Why not?"  
"Well if we do.."  
"They could mess up time." finished Trini .  
Barry looked at Trini , amazed. "How did you know that?"  
"What? Am I the only one who saw 'Back to The Future'?"  
"Oh ya!! Right." Zack snapped his fingers. "If they change the past, they could really mess up the future."  
"Exactly," said Brian, looking confused. "What is this 'Back to The Future' you are talking about?"

Zack was about to answer as Zordon interrupted him. "Rangers, I know this is an amazing occurrence, but we must find out what brings these rangers to this time."  
"Yes, Zordon is right." said Billy.  
"Ya, I guess so." said Zack.  
"So, what are you guys doing here?" asked Jason.

"We are here to catch that mutant you were fighting, Gun Hog." replied John.  
"Mutant? You mean that monster?"  
"Yes, but he is actually a mutant."  
"A mutant?"  
"Yes. In our time, mutants attacked our academy and stole a device that allows them to travel back in time."  
"They hope to try and stop the Power Rangers before they even started," said Brian.  
"They want to try and stop us?" asked Kimberly.  
"Actually, they want to destroy you." answered Barry. "They are a lot stronger then the monsters you fight in your time."  
"That's why we couldn't stop that thing." said Zack.  
"Yes. We came back to try and stop him before he was able to do so." said John.  
"Wait. You said the mutants attacked your academy?" asked Jason.  
"Yes..." John answered.  
"So you guys must still be in training."  
"Wait, you aren't really rangers?" asked Zack.  
John sighed, "No, we are not real Power Rangers. Yet."  
"Now hold on a minute. You are telling me that they sent back rookies to try and stop the 'mutant' thing?" asked Zack. "What were they thinking??"  
John tried to think of a response, but Zordon spoke. "Remember Zack, you have only recently become a Power Ranger yourself."  
"Ya but..."  
"Its ok. He is right." said John, sounding defeated. "We shouldn't have been sent back. We couldn't stop him before you guys got involved, and you almost got killed trying to save us. We should never have tried to do this."  
"John," said Rachel, " we had to try something."  
"No we didn't, Rachel. I dragged you guys into this. We can't even morph, so how are we supposed to stop that thing. We should just go back and let Commander Oliver try and clean up our mess."  
Brian and the others looked on as John looked down. "We failed."

Zordon looked at John and the others. "You have not failed, Rangers. I believe that we still have a chance to stop this creature."  
John looked up at Zordon, "Zordon, we cannot morph. That means we cannot fight. And there is no way that you guys," John turned towards the Rangers, "can stop him alone. He just too powerful."  
Zordon smiled. "John, just because it looks like all is lost, there is always hope. The Power is with you and your friends, and with the Power, anything is possible."  
"What do you mean?" John asked, confused by Zordon's words.  
"Earlier, I sensed a change in the Power, as if a power as great as that of my Rangers had suddenly came into being. At first I could not understand where this other power was coming from, but when the Rangers brought you and your friends here, I realized that it was you."  
"But we are just cadets. We can't be real Rangers."  
"The Power cares not of experience, John. It chooses those who it believes are able to combat evil."  
"He is right, John." said Brian. John turned to face his friends. "We can't give up now. Look how far we have come already."  
"Ya, I didn't come all this way just to give up and go home." said Barry, a smile on his face.  
John turned to Rachel and Katherine. "Are you guys up for this?"  
"Hey," said Katherine, "We followed you this far, didn't we?"

Suddenly an alarm sounded, drawing him back to reality. "Aie-ya-ya-yi-ya-yi!" cried Alpha. "Zordon! The monster is attacking Downtown Angel Grove!"  
Jason and the other Rangers ran over to the Viewing Globe, quickly followed by John and the others. Within the Globe, they could see Gun Hog attacking the city.  
"Zordon we have to stop him." said Jason. He walked up to Alpha. "We're going back!"  
"But you guys can't fight him alone. He's too strong!" said John.  
"We have to do something."  
"There may be a way." said Zordon.  
"What do you mean Zordon?" asked John.  
"There may be a way for you to fight with the Rangers."  
"But we cannot morph. We wouldn't be much help," said Brian.  
"There may be a way for you to do so. You may be able to draw from the Power of the Rangers in this time and combine it with your own."  
"Zordon, do you really think it will work? This had never been attempted before." asked Alpha.  
"We have no choice Alpha. We must try."  
"Rangers, take out your morphers"  
Jason and the others took out their morphers.  
"Now John: you and your friends stand with the Rangers."  
John and the others slowly took their places in front of the Ranges: Brian in front of Zack, Rachel in front of Kimberly, Barry in front of Billy, Katherine in front of Trini , John in front of Jason.  
"Now Rangers, focus on your Power Coins. Focus your powers."  
The Rangers closed their eyes.  
"You," said Zordon turning to John and the others, "need to focus on the Power within you and focus it on the Rangers' Power Coins."  
John and the others closed their eyes. John tried to focus of the image of the Red Ranger. At first, he felt nothing. But suddenly, he felt a warmth wash over him.  
"Aie-ya-ya-yi-ya-yi" cried Alpha.  
John slowly raised his hands in front of him, feeling the warmth focus there. After a few moments, the Rangers' morphers began to glow. Each glowed with the Rangers' colors as the light began to move over to John and the others. As the same time, a white light came from the future rangers and moved towards Jason and the others. As the two light mixed, they grew brighter and brighter. The light grew around the two sets of rangers. Then, slowly, the light receded. The future rangers opened their eyes to find that they each held a morpher in their hands.

"It worked!" cried Barry.  
"This is amazing. How is it possible?" asked Brian.  
"I don't think it matters if it possible or not. All that matters is it worked." said Katherine smiling.  
As the Rangers congratulate each other, Zordon spoke.  
"Future Rangers, you now have your own Power Morphers. The Power Coin held within them is not a true Power Coin. It only aids to focus the power that you are now sharing with the Rangers. They, however, will allow you to morph and fight alongside them."  
John turned to Zordon and nodded. "That's all we will need."  
"Be careful Rangers. Your powers may be weakened now that it is being split between two sets of Rangers."  
Billy turned towards Zordon and asked, "But Zordon, will it be enough to defeat Gun Hog?"  
Barry walked up to Billy, grabbing his shoulder and smiling. "Only one way to find out."  
"He's right," seconded Jason. "We need to take care of the over-sized gun rack. Ready Rangers?"  
"Ready!" called out the Rangers.  
"You guys know what to do, right?" asked Jason.  
John nodded. "Lets do this!"  
Jason smiled, then became serious. "Ok Rangers!"  
John turned to his friends. "Just follow my lead. This is going to be great."  
Both sets of Rangers turned towards the Viewing Globe and placed their right hands behind them.  
Both Jason and John called out in unison: "Its Morphing Time!!"


	8. Rangers United

The future Rangers were suddenly surrounded by a bright light as they felt a power rush over them. They then found themselves outdoors again.  
"Wow!! This is amazing!" cried Barry. The future Rangers looked over themselves in morph.  
"I feel ten times stronger. Maybe even more!" Brian clenched his fists.  
"This is better then I could have imagined." John was smiling ear to ear beneath his helmet.  
"Ok guys," called Jason. "You can ogle your costumes after we defeat the monster."  
The future Rangers turned to Jason and nodded. "Right."  
"All right," said Jason, scouting the area, "we need to find the pompous pig and take him down!"  
Suddenly, the two sets of Rangers we surrounded by explosions. Each group dove out of the way. Both looked towards the source of the explosions to see Gun Hog. "Looking for me?" he laughed, snorting.  
"Wait," said Gun Hog, looking at the two sets of Rangers, "Why are there two groups of Rangers?"  
John stepped forward and spoke, "We here to take you in, Gun Hog." Moving his hand behind him, he pulled out his Time Force badge, showing it to the mutant. It shimmered as it was activated. "You are hereby under arrest for illegal time travel to the past, with intend of endangering the time line through willful destruction of the past. Come quietly."  
Gun Hog laughed, "I have a better idea. Why don't you all go, in PIECES!!" He quickly pulled out a large arm cannon from his assortment of weapons and fired on the two sets of Rangers.

In one swift movement, both groups dove forward and jumped over the shots fired from the canon towards Gun Hog. Both Red Rangers landed a side-kick to the mutant, sending him staggering back. "We need to get that cannon away from him," said Jason. John turned and nodded. Both ran up to Gun Hog and kicked the cannon out of his hands into the air. "Now!" cried John, "Blast it!!!" The other Rangers pulled out their blasters and fired at the cannon. "NO!" cried Gun Hog and the blasts hit their mark and the remains of the cannon fell at Gun Hog's feet. "That was my favorite cannon!!" said Gun Hog, shaking with anger. "Now you got me really mad!!" Squealing in anger, he pulled out two laser rifles and began firing at the rangers. Both Red Rangers fell back to their groups.  
"Doesn't look like that slowed him down," said Barry.  
"Then I guess we have to try a little harder," said Zack, pulling out his Power Ax. The other Rangers followed suit by readying their Power weapons.  
Jason turned towards the Future Rangers, "Just focus on your weapon and it will come to you!"The Future Rangers nodded and focused. Brian raised his opened hand into the air as a ball of black light formed in his palm. He clenched his fist, spreading the light out from his palm. "Power Ax!!" The light took the form of an ax before breaking, reveling a black ax.  
Katherine crossed her arms in a X-formation in front of her, two small yellow balls forming in her palms. She clenched her fist, creating two small beams of light out of the two balls. "Power Daggers!!" The light broke to revel two small daggers with yellow hilts.  
Barry placed his right arm in front of him, palm open. As a bright blue light began to form in his open palm, he clenched his fist, creating a long pillar of light on either side of his hand. "Power Lance!!" The pillars solidified into a blue lance with small tridents on either end.  
Rachel threw her left arm to her side as a curved pink light rose from her fist. As the light grew longer, a light formed between them, which she took with her right hand. She raised her arms in front of her, pulling the light in her right hand back. "Power Bow!!" A metal bow formed from the light she held in her left hand, as a string formed in her right. A pink arrow formed between them.  
John threw his right arm to his side as a red light began to glow in his fist. As he lifted his fist in front of him, the light grew from his hand into a long beam of light. "Power Sword!!" The light grew brighter then broke away, revealing a long sword.

Both groups of Rangers, weapons drawn, ran towards Gun Hog, who fired on them. The Black Rangers jumped forwards, striking Gun Hug with an overhead swing of their axes. The laser rifles in Gun Hug's hands fell to the ground, sliced in two. The Pink Rangers jumped over the blasts and fired their arrows at Gun Hog, pushing him back. The Blue Rangers, who thrust their lances into the mutant, followed them. They lifted Gun Hog from the ground and threw him into the air. The Yellow Rangers jumped into the air after him, slicing him with their daggers. Gun Hog fell to the ground and pulled himself to his feet to be meet with the blades of the Red Rangers, which threw him back to the ground.

He slowly climbed back to his feet. "Do you think that's going to stop me?" he snorted. "You have to do better then that!!"  
"Ok guys," cried Jason, "Time to pull out the heavy artillery!!" John turned towards the Future Rangers. "Just follow their lead."  
Zack stepped forward, locking is ax into blaster mode and throwing it into the air. "Power Ax!"  
Kimberly threw her bow towards the ax, which attached to the top of it. "Power Bow!"  
Billy separated his lance into two pieces and threw them towards the bow and ax combo. They attached beneath the bow on either side. "Power Lance!"  
Trinie followed suit by throwing her daggers towards the forming weapon. They attached along side the lance pieces. "Power Daggers!"  
Jason jumped into the air and reached for the weapon, placing his sword on top of it. "Power Sword!" As he landed, the other Rangers formed around him. The future Rangers also formed the weapon and formed to their side.  
"Ready Rangers?" cried Jason.  
"Ready!" responded both sets of Rangers.  
"Fire!" From the barrels of the Power Blasters fired bright beams of energy that combined into one large energy ball. From this ball fired a large beam that struck Gun Hog, throwing him back. As he landed on the ground, pieces of his armor and weapons landed around him. The Rangers separated the Power Blaster back into their Power Weapons, looking on as Gun Hog tried to climb to his feet.  
"Have you had enough?" cried John.  
Gun Hog rose to his feet, looking around himself at his destroyed weapons and armor. "You… You destroyed all my weapons!!" He looked towards the Rangers, angrily pointing at them. "I'll get you back for this, mark my words!" He pulled a small device from behind him and punched a few buttons on the face of it. A portal formed behind him, which he ran into. Before the Rangers could follow, the portal closed.  
"No!" cried Zack. "He got away!!"  
"Its ok, Zack," said John. "We can go after him.  
"All right," said Jason, "lets get back to the Command Center."  
The Rangers touched the sides of their morphers and teleported away.

* * *

"You guys did great," said Jason, patting John on the back.  
"You guys are naturals!" exclaimed Kimberly.  
The other Rangers were congratulating their counterparts as Zordon interrupted.  
"Future Rangers, I congratulate you on a well-fought battle."  
"Thanks, Zordon," said John. "But it's not over yet. We need to go after Gun Hog."  
"But where did he go?" asked Treini.  
"The only place he could go," replied Brian. "Back to our time."  
"Oh!" cried Kimberly, "you guys are leaving already?"  
"Sadly, yes." John turned towards the Rangers. "We have caused enough trouble in this time. And we have to stop Gun Hog before he tries something in our time."  
The Future Rangers turned towards Zordon. "Thank you Zordon. If it wasn't for you and the Rangers of this time," said John, as he looked towards Jason and the others, "we would not have been able to stop Gun Hog."  
"Future Rangers, it is I who should be thanking you. If you had not come to aid the Power Rangers, they may have been destroyed."  
"That's right," said Zack. "So thanks, from all of us." The Rangers smiled at their future counterparts.  
John turned towards his friends, "Ok guys. Its time to go." He and the others walked towards the open area near the Viewing Globe. Looking at his morpher, Brian said, "From what I understand, if we press this button," pointing to the large button John had pressed to activate the Time Gate, "we should be able to open a portal back to our time."  
John noted and raised his morpher. "Ok lets do it."  
The Future Rangers took one last look at the Power Rangers. "Thanks Guys."  
"Future Rangers, return to your time and defeat this new enemy. And may the Power protect you."  
John smiled at his words as he and the other Future Rangers activated their morphers and vanished is a shimmer of black light.

* * *

John and the others found themselves walking out of the Time Gate back at the Academy's Command Center. "Looks like we made it back in one piece," said John looking around the Command Center.  
"Thankfully," said Barry.  
"Now that we are back, we should find Commander Oliver and tell him what happened," said Brian.  
"Ya, your right," said John. He turned towards the door.  
"Wait," said Rachel.  
"What's up?"  
"Doesn't it seem a little too …. quiet in here to you guys?"  
Katherine looked around the Command Center. There was no one in sight. "Actually she's right. This place is usually full of people."  
"With the all the commotion that was going on when we left, you would think they would be waiting for us to return," said Brian.  
"Well, maybe we returned a few days after we left. Maybe its nighttime," John stated as he walked towards the main chamber doors.  
"True, but from what I can remember reading, we should have returned a few hours after we left. That is the default setting for the gate."  
"Well, we will have to ask the commander when we find him," said John, as he pressed a few buttons on the console near the door. The doors began to pull back into the walls as they opened. 

Behind the doors were fifty Time Force officers, all armed with blasters. John staggered back, surprised. Suddenly, from the three other doors of the Command Center poured in hundreds of armed Time Force officers. They quickly surrounded John and the others.  
Commander Oliver stepped forward from behind the mass of officers to face them.  
"You are hereby under arrest for theft and illegal use of Time Force technology. Stand down!"


	9. Rangers No More

John opened his eyes. Had it all been a dream? Sitting up, he check out his surroundings. He was greeted with three gray walls and a force-field door.  
"No not a dream", he said to himself with a sigh, climbing out of the prison bed he sat on. He wished it had all been a dream, not the nightmare he was living. After failing to stop the mutants from stealing a new prototype time gate, he thought the best way to redeem himself was to catch the mutant who took it. As it turns out, that was the worst thing he could of done. Dragging his friends along was not the best choice either. He thought back to a few days, remembering when everything feel apart.

* * *

"You are hereby under arrest for illegal use of time force technology. Stand Down!" Commander Oliver commanded. The hundreds of guards surrounding John and the others made it seem like a good idea.  
"But Commander Oliver..." John took a step forward towards his commanding officer, only to be greeted by five Time Force officers, blasters raised.  
"Stand down, cadet," warned Oliver. "You are in enough trouble as it is. Do not make it worse on yourself."  
John slowly stepped back, raising his hands above his head. He looked over his shoulder at his companions and nodded. They slowly raised their hands into the air.  
As the group complied with his demands, Oliver motioned to the officers, who lowered their weapons. He walked towards the group, facing John face-to-face. "Do you understand what you have done?!?"  
John tried to respond, but Oliver cut him off.  
"You have broken into restricted areas, stolen Time Force technology, and possibly altered the time line beyond repair." He turned his gaze towards the others. "These are criminal acts. You will be prosecuted and sentenced." He looked at Rachel with a look of sadness in his eyes. "Your involvement in the Universal Ranger program is over. You are hereby expelled from Time Force Academy."  
John turned around to look at this friends. Barry was staring at Oliver angrily. Brian and Katherine looked shocked. Rachel couldn't look Oliver in the eyes. She looked at John for a brief moment, then turned her head towards the ground. He could see tears forming in her eyes.  
John felt horrible. He had single-handedly ruined the careers' and lives of the only people he could call friends. As depression fell in, he thought about the last few months. He had now lost everything he had worked so hard to achieve. He tried desperately to think of a way to repair the damage he had done, but to no avail. He knew there was nothing he could do to save himself, but he knew he had to do something for his friends. He looked up at them, trying to think of a way to save them from the same fate as himself. Suddenly, he had an idea. He knew the pain it would cause them, but it was the only thing he could do.  
Oliver turned to walk away from the group. He spoke to the officer closest to him. "Take them into custody and bring them to the brig. Separate cells for all of them."  
"Wait sir!" John stepped forward towards Oliver. Again, the guards raised their blasters.  
"Cadet stand down!" Oliver said angrily, turning around to face him.  
This time, John held his ground. "NO SIR, I will not SIR!" He stood at attention, looking Oliver in the eye.  
"What did you say?"  
"No sir! I will not sir!"  
The guards moved forward to apprehend him, but Oliver motioned for them to stop. "Cadet, you are in enough trouble. Why are you making it worse?"  
John swallowed the growing lump in his throat. "Sir, I am the only one who should be taken into custody, sir."  
Oliver was taken back. "And why is that, cadet?"  
"Sir, this operation was entirely my idea. I was the one who broke into the lab and stole the morphers. I coerced the other cadets to come with me, thinking the Time Gate would not open without all five morphers present They were forced to enter the gate against their will, sir."  
Oliver looked at John skeptically. "You are saying that you acted alone in this? That those cadets," he pointed to John's friends, "had nothing to do with this? That they were forced against their will, by you, to participate?"  
John nodded, "Yes, sir."  
Oliver grew angry again, "Do you expect me to believe that?!? There is no way you could have done this alone."  
John stared Oliver in the eye, "That is exactly what I want you to believe sir. These cadets have no prior disciplinary actions brought against them. One has even been given top honors within her class."  
Rachel look at John puzzled. "What are you doing John?"  
"What are you talking about? I thought we were in this together!" Barry started to walk towards John and Oliver, but was stopped by the guards.  
John ignored his friends and continued to speak directly to Oliver. "There is no reason they would jeopardize their enrollment in the Academy."  
Oliver looked at John, trying to understand what he was doing. "So what are you getting at?"  
"Sir, I take full responsibility for the actions taken by myself and by the other cadets. As such, I want all charges brought against them dropped."  
"WHAT?" Brian cried out.  
"And why is that?" Oliver looked at John, understanding what he was doing.  
"There is no reason for the Academy to lose four of its brightest cadets. I did this on my own, and should be the only one to pay the consequences for my actions."  
"You do understand that if you go through with this, expulsion would be the least of your worries. You could face crio-freeze."  
"Yes sir, I understand that, but I will not allow my actions to ruin the lives of four people."  
Oliver and John stared at each other. Oliver looked into John's eyes, then nodded.  
"Take this cadet, " he pointed to John, "to high-security lock up."  
"NO!" cried Rachel.  
"Take the others back to their quarters. I want them under lock down and their rooms guarded."  
"Yes sir!" One of the officers walked up to John and took him into custody. John did not fight it. He was forced to the ground on his stomach and had his arms pulled behind him. After being restrained, the guard guard lifted him to his feet. The morpher was removed from his arm before he was lead away by three other officers. As they took the morpher from him, he heard something fall to the ground. He turned and caught sight of his Time Force badge on the ground. He then looked up and caught sight of his friends as they were being taken away. As he was begin lead away, he saw their faces. Looks of anger, betrayal, regret, and pain greeted him. He stopped walked to try and say something, but one of the guards pushed him forward, hitting him in the back. "Move along!"  
John turned around and walked forward, looking at the ground. He did not know what fate had is store for him, but he knew his friends would be safe.

* * *

John's daydream was cut short by a loud yell. "Hey you!"  
He looked up and saw a guard standing in front of him. "Get up! Its time."  
"Time for what?" John asked.  
"Your trial." 


	10. Judgement Day

John looked around the room as it quickly filled with people. Time Force officers; Academy Cadets; even normal citizens. They were all around him, speaking in whispers as they pointed in his direction in the center of the room. He could feel them staring at him, judging him. He moved uneasily in his chair. He looked down into his lap where his hands rested, bound together by handcuffs. He looked up only to be faced with the Time Force insignia on the wall in front of him. Regret washed over him and he quickly looked away. The circular court room filled, the voice of the crowd grew louder. Their voices echoed through the room. John tried to ignore them until a voice called out. "Order in the Court!!" He looked up to see a guard standing in front of him. He spoke to the room. "The trial of Cadet John Hamato will now begin. All rise!"  
The courtroom rose to its feet as three figures emerged from a door near the front of the room. John watched as Commander Lexington, Commander Oliver, and Commissioner Archer took their seats at the large podium in front of him. A mummer came from the court as they sat down. It was silenced as Commissioner Archer began to speak.  
"Due to the severity of the charges brought against the accused, this trial has been deemed a civil matter and as such, has been removed from Time Force Academy jurisdiction. The civil trial of Cadet John Hamato will now begin."  
Commander Lexington spoke next. "The charges brought against the accused is as follows: two counts of breaking and entering secured areas of Time Force Academy; five counts of theft of Time Force equipment; Five counts of misuse of Time Force technology; And five counts of willful destruction of the timeline."  
John looked down as his charges were read to him.  
"Let the record show that the four counts of blackmail against Time Force officers has been dropped as the officers will not not testify against the accused."  
John looked up upon hearing that news. He looked around the courtroom for his friends, but saw no sign of them.  
Commissioner Archer addressed John. "How does the accused plead?"  
John slowly look up. He looked towards Oliver, who nodded. He looked back towards the ground. "I plead guilty on all counts."  
The courtroom erupted in noise. "Order in the court!" cried Archer.  
As the courtroom quieted down, Commissioner Archer spoke once again. "Does the accused understands the severity of these charges?"  
"Yes sir, I do." John looked at his judges stone-faced.  
"Very well then." Commander Lexington said as he rose to his feet. "In punishment of these crimes..."  
"Wait one moment, Commander Lexington." Archer raised his hand, motioning for Lexington to stop. "Due to odd circumstances this trial is placed under, I wish to ask the accused one question before sentencing is carried out."  
Lexington looked shocked by this, but quickly returned to his seat. Oliver looked surprised as well, looking at the commissioner oddly.  
"Cadet Hamato, the court wishes to know why you deemed it necessary to perform these acts. As a cadet, you knew the repercussions of your actions."  
John spoke without emotion, "I wanted to capture the mutant as to prevent it from altering the time line."  
"Yes, the court recognizes that this was your statement. But I do not believe that is the only reason why." Archer looked inquisitively at John. "Where you trying to be the hero? Prove to someone that you were capable of doing so?" Archer glanced at Oliver. "Or is their another reason?"  
John body tightened as Archer spoke those words, but he remained silent.  
"The court has addressed the accused. The accused must respond."  
John ground his teeth together, but still said nothing.  
Archer sighed. "As the accused will not address the court's questions, we will continue with sentencing. Lexington,"  
As Lexington rose to his feet, John cried out, "Wait!!"  
The courtroom looked on in awe as John looked up from the floor,his face racked with guilt.  
"Does the accused wish to address the court?" asked Commissioner Archer.  
"Yes sir," John answered in a wavering voice.  
"The accused may proceeded."  
John took a deep breath to compose himself, then spoke. "I know what I did was wrong, and am willing to accept the consequences. But it was my responsibility to stop that mutant."  
"You are not a Time Force officer, only a cadet. It is not your job to apprehend mutants," said Archer.  
"This time is was. It was my fault..." John voice suddenly grew soft.  
Commander Oliver interpreted "The accused will refrain from speak of classified information."  
"But it was my fault..."  
Oliver repeated himself. "The accused will refrain from speak of classified information."  
"It was may fault..." John's voice grew louder  
"The accused will remain in control of his emotions" said Oliver.  
"It was my fault that mutant was able to travel back in time."  
"The accused will refrain from speaking of classified information."  
Archer spoke. "Order!"  
"If it wasn't for me, the time line wouldn't be in danger."  
"The accused will refrain from speaking of classified information!" Oliver voice grew louder as he grew flustered.  
"Order in the court!"  
"I couldn't stand by and let my mistake ruin innocent lives."  
"The accused will refrain...," Oliver repeated but was interpreted by John.  
"IT WAS MY FAULT!!" he cried.  
"CADGET, CONTROL YOURSELF!"  
"Order in the court!!!"  
The courtroom fell silent.  
Archer gave Oliver an angry look. Oliver sat down, slowly regaining his composure. John looked towards Archer, tears welting in his eyes.  
"The accused will remain in control of his emotions," said Archer angrily.  
"Yes sir. Sorry sir." John looked down once again.  
"It was not your place to stop the mutants. You are not a Time Force officer, nor are you a Power Ranger. There was nothing you could do. It was not your job."  
"It is my job. I am a Ranger.."  
"What is that, cadet?"  
"I am a Ranger"  
"You are NOT a Ranger, Cadet. You may have had the chance to become on, but now, you will never be one."  
John looked up. "I am a Ranger. Zordon himself said that I had the power to become a Ranger."  
The court fell silent. Archer looked at John, shocked by his words.  
"You spoke with Zordon?"  
"Yes I did, and he said I had the power within me. That I was a Power Ranger. And if I am a Power Ranger, it is my job to protect the innocent. No one will stop me from doing that. Not you, Time Force, and any mutant that stands in my way."  
Archer was taken back by John's brave words. Oliver said nothing, but had a look of understanding in his eyes. Commander Lexington was the only one to speak. "The accused last statement will be stricken from the record."  
Archer took a deep breath, then turned to Commander Lexington. "The court will now issue its sentence."  
Lexington rose to his feet.  
"The court find Cadet Hamato guilty on all counts. The sentence is one thousand years in cryo-freeze."  
The court gave out a collective gasp.  
"The sentence will be carried out immediately."  
Two guards walked up to John, taking either arm.  
Archer rose to his feet. "Court is now..."  
He was interpreted by a explosion and the wail of alarms.  
"What is happening?" Archer turned towards Oliver.  
Oliver quickly activated a holo-screen at his station. "The Academy is under attack!"  
"What?!?"  
"The attack is being lead by two unidentified mutants."  
"One of then has to be Gun Hog!" John cried out. "Sir, you have to let me stop him."  
"You have done enough," said Oliver. "Guards, take him back to his cell!!" As John was carried away, Oliver turned back to the holo-screen. After pressing a few key, Oliver spoke again.  
"Attention all personal," Oliver's voiced boomed throughout the base, "Attention all personal. The Academy has fallen under attack. I repeat, the Academy has fallen under attack. This is not a drill. All personal report to your stations. All personal report to your stations! This is not a drill!"  
"You don't understand!!" John cried out as the guards threw him back into his cell. "You don't know what that thing is capable of! I need to warn the commander!"  
The guards ignored him as they activated the force-field door of his cell. After the force-field was activated, they quickly made their way out of the detention center.  
"You don't understand!!" John cried out to them, "He's too powerful!!"  
Realizing his cries fell on deaf ears, he angrily punched the neighboring wall. "They don't know what they are getting themselves into!" He walked over to the bed and sat down, covering his head with his hands. "Gun Hog cannot be stopped by normal officers. He's just too strong!!!."  
John tried to think of a way to warn Commander Oliver, to stop him from fighting a battle he could not win, but he couldn't think of anything. All he could think about was what would happen. He could see the bodies of Time Force officers on the ground; Could see officers being shot at by Gun Hog. He could see Kantor walking to the Command Center, easily defeating the officers protecting it. He could see Kantor destroying the Time Gate, leaving Time Force with no way to stop the mutants from altering the time line. And he knew there was nothing he could do about it. For once, he felt totally helpless.  
"Its over."  
Suddenly he heard a male voice, "So you are going to give up?"  
He spoke to the voice "There is nothing I can do."  
The voice became clearer. "What do you mean?"  
"I am locked in this cell, unable to fight. And even if I wasn't, what good would I be?"  
"You could try to stop them."  
"And fail. Every time I have tried to do what I think is right, I fail."  
"So you are just going to give up?"  
"What choice do I have?"  
"You always have a choice. No matter the dire situation may be, you always have a choice."  
John fell silent.  
"If you had a choice, what would you do now? Would you hide in this cell and allow the mutants to destroy everything you hold dear; To hurt the people you care about? Or would you fight to protect them? Fight to protect what you believe in?"  
John did not respond right away. After a few moments of silence, he spoke quietly, "I would fight..."  
"What would you do?"  
John's voice became firmer as he spoke. "I would fight".  
The voice grew loud, "What would you do?"  
John jumped to his feet, "I would FIGHT!!!"  
"OK OK!!! We get it. You want to fight. Now stop yelling. You're starting to hurt my ears."  
John opened his eyes. In front of him was Katherine. At her feet lay the force-field control panel and a multitude of wires.  
"What are you doing?" John quickly moved towards the force-field door.  
"What do you think I am doing? Trying to get you out of here." She bent down and began work on the control panel on the floor.  
"But how? Why are you doing..." John's questions were cut short as sparks flew from the panel. Katherine feel back and let out a scream of surprise. The force-field began to flicker, then blinked out. John ran up to Katherine as Barry ran into the room. "Are you ok?" the both asked in unison.  
"Ya I think so." Katherine climbed to her feet. "I thought Brian said deactivating the force-field was going to be easy."  
Barry looked down at the smoking control panel near the cell. "It was supposed to be..."  
John finally spoke up. "What are you guys doing?!? Do you know what Oliver is going to do to you guys when he finds out about this?"  
"Do you think we care?" asked Barry.  
"Ya," said Katherine, "We weren't going to let you freeze in prison trying to cover for us."  
"But..." John start to speak, but was interpreted by Katherine.  
"NO BUTS!"  
John and Barry both looked at her, surprised to hear the small girl raise her voice.  
Katherine blushed. "We are your friends, and we need to stick together. We will face Oliver with you."  
John smiled at his friends. The moment was cut short by a voice in Katherine's pocket. "Is everything all right?"  
Snapped back to reality, Katherine pulled out what looked to be an old-fashioned watch from her pocket. She spoke into its face. "Yes Brian. Everything is alright."  
"What? Isn't that a commu..."  
Brian's voice cut John off. "Ok. We got the morphers. Meet us near the main entrance."  
"Alright," Katherine placed the device back into her jacket pocket. "We need to go!" Grabbing John's arm, she and Barry ran out the door of the detention area and down the hallway.  
John, lost in all the happenings that recently took place, blindly followed.  
As they neared the main corridor, John finally woke up.  
"What?!?" He pulled away from Katherine and stopped.  
Barry stopped and turned to face him. "John, we don't have time for this!"  
"Ya", said Katherine, "they are going to need some help you there".  
"How are we supposed to help? You know how strong Gun Hog is. I doubt even the Defense Squad will be able to hold him back for long."  
"We know that. That's why Brian and Rachel went back to the lab to get the morphers. Now lets go!"  
Barry and Katherine turned and began to make their way down the corridor.  
"Wait!!" John called out as he followed the pair.  
After reaching the main corridor, the two stopped. They began to look around when John finally reached them. "How are we supposed to use the morphers? They didn't work when we first fought Gun Hog," he asked, half out of breath.  
"Brian did a bit of digging and found out that they morphers weren't completed when we took them." Katherine answered.  
"What?"  
"He said something about the morphing protocols not being set and not linking to the security gird or something," said Barry.  
"What I actually said," came a voice from behind them, "was that the security protocols were not set and the morphers themselves were not linked to the Universal Morphing Grid, hence they had no power." The three friends turned to find Brian and Rachel walking towards them.  
"That's what I said," said Barry.  
"Of course it is," said Brian. He quickly handed handed John his morpher as Rachel gave Barry and Katherine theirs.  
"So these are actually functional now?" asked John.  
"Well, it was a rush job and I had to do most of the coding myself. It seems the scientists couldn't find a way to draw power from all the different time lines of Rangers. Without those powers, the morpher could not function. So I came up with the idea that instead of drawing power directly from the time stream, I developed a system which would allow us to use some of the remaining powers still in the Morphing Grid from past generations to power the morphers. Its actually quite amazing. If we find a way to harness that power, we..."  
"BRIAN!" John shock his friend by the shoulders. "Will. They. Work?"  
"Um sorry... Yes, theoretically, they should work."  
"That's good enough for me." John placed the morpher on his left wrist. It emitted a bright red light and attached itself to his wrist. Looking down at it, he smiled.  
"So how do we activate them?"  
Brian showed John a long button on the inner side of the morpher. "You need to press this button with the proper security phrase."  
"And what is this security phrase?"  
"I didn't set one. I didn't have time to," said Brian. "It will be set upon activation of the morphers."  
John nodded. "Alright."He looked towards his friends. Each of them looked at him with a look of understanding and determination. "Lets go." He turned around, looking down the main corridor towards the main entrance. He ran down the corridor, followed by the rest of his team.


	11. Rangers Anew

Outside Time Force Academy, things were not going well for Time Force. Commander Oliver watched as the mutant forces broke through ever line of defense he had. Leading the charge was Kantor and Gun Hog, followed by a group of at least thirty of the foulest creatures he had ever seen. They were humanoid, but where far from human. Their bodies seemed to pulsate with each step they took, limps oozing with a strange liquid. Their faces were disfigured and twisted. Some of them had weapons attached to their bodies instead of arms. These weapons were covered in odd growths, as if they were spawned from the creatures themselves. He watched as one of the creatures effortlessly destroyed a weapons turret with a blast from its arm cannon. In their wake were the beaten bodies of Time Force officers.  
Kantor leaped into the air and landed a few feet away from Oliver. "Surrender now, Human. There is no chance you will win. If you lead us to the Time Gate, I might just have a place for you within my ranks."  
Oliver angrily jumped at the mutant, launching a kick to his face. Kantor easily grabbed his foot out of the air and threw Oliver back.  
Kantor laughed as Oliver crashed through the glass entranceway of the Academy. "It is over, Human. History as you know it is about to change forever."  
Oliver looked on as Kantor made his way over to him on the ground, drawing his sword. "Sadly, you will not be around long enough to see the end of your kind."  
Oliver could only watch as Kantor raised his sword, ready to deal one last strike. He braced himself for the attack, but it never came.  
"Not this time!!" John leaped over Oliver and kicked Kantor squarely in the chest, knocking him back. He rolled down the steps behind him.  
John landed in front of Oliver and looked over his shoulder. "Are you ok, sir?"  
"What do you think you are doing Cadet?!?" asked Oliver angrily as he pulled himself to his feet.  
"We," said John as he was joined by his friends, "are here to finish what we started."  
"WHAT?!?" Oliver watched as each of the cadets raised their left forearm to show him their morphers. "You all are under arrest!! Stand down now!!"  
"Sorry sir" said Rachel. "We can't do that."  
"If you want to take us into custody, you can do it after we take care of these mutants," said Barry, a smile on his face. Oliver looked at each of the cadets in front of him as they nodded in agreement.  
"How dare you!!" The cadets turned around to see Kantor and Gun Hog at the bottom of the stairs.  
"It's them, Kantor!!" said Gun Hog. "Those are the pesky rangers that stopped me in the past."  
"Fool! They are not rangers, only worthless cadets. There is no way they can stop us!!"  
"That's were you are wrong, Kantor," said John. "This time, we will stop you here and now!"  
"Ready guys?" asked John.  
The rest of the cadets took their place by his side. Katherine and Brian stood at either side of him, with Rachel and Barry just behind them. All responded, "Ready!!"  
"Then lets do this!" John threw his arms to his sides. The rest of the cadets followed suit.  
Together, they all stepped to their right side, lifting their left arms in front of their chests.  
John called out, "Universal Power!!"  
Shifting their weight to the center, they stood tall, raising their arms above their heads. With their right hands, they pressed the rectangular red button on the side of their morphers, then threw their arms to their sides.

A bright light engulfed them. Within the light, each cadets' body glowed with this light. The forms of Rangers past formed around each of them. Staring with the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, each formed moved forward and collided with them. As each hit them, a wave of power washed over them as a new piece of armor appeared over their glowing bodies. As the last Ranger form collided with them, the bright light surrounding them burst outward. Oliver, along with Kantor and Gun Hog, shielded his eyes. As the light dimmed, he looked in front of him and looked in awe. Before him, were his cadets once stood, now were five unknown Rangers.  
All wore the same uniform: A uniform not unlike those worn by normal Time Force Ranges. However, each had a black lighting bolt down the left side of their uniform. Their helmets bore no Time Force insignia. A thin white line was centered on the back of their helmets. It came to the front and surrounded their visors.  
"What is this? New Rangers?!?" cried Kantor.  
"Universal Green!" called out Barry, taking a fighting stance.  
"Universal Yellow!" called out Katherine, taking a Crouching Tiger stance.  
"Universal Pink!" called out Rachel, taking her combat stance.  
"Universal Blue!" called out Brian, stepping back on his right leg and raising his right arm above his head in a fighting stance.  
"Universal Red!" called out John, stepping forward with his left leg, also taking a fighting stance.  
All the Rangers took a military stance and called out in unison, "Universal Rangers!!"

The Rangers looked down at Kantor and Gun Hog. John threw his right arm down to his side. A ball of light formed in it, taking the shape of his lost Time Force badge. Griping the light, he stepped forward his right leg, raising his right arm in front of him, palm out. The light broke away to reveal a Time Force badge. In the center of the badge was the Time Force insignia; At its top read "Time Force". On its right, "Universal"; To its left, "Ranger"  
John spoke, "You are hereby under arrest for attacking Time Force Academy with intent to destroy. You are also charged with willful destruction of the time line by altering the past. Stand down!!"  
Kantor let out an angry cry. "Never!!" He turned around to face his minions. "Mutoids, ATTACK!!"  
The mutants behind him obeyed, running towards the steps.  
John lowered his badge, with vanished in a flash of light. In one swift movement, he and the other Rangers jumped forward to meet their attackers.  
Barry reached them first. With one swift kick, he knocked back three of the Mutoids. One came from behind, raising it blade to attack. He spun around and caught the blade in the air, punching the creature in the chest a few times before throwing it over him into a group of attackers.  
Katherine landed not far from him, landing on one of the Mutoids. As it fell to the ground, she jumped off its chest towards the next. As she got close, she launched an ax kick to the Mutiod's right arm, dropping it to the ground in one hit. She quickly jumped into the air again, spinning back and launching a kick into the Mutoid behind her. It was thrown back with such force that it flew into the group of Mutoids behind it, knocking them to the ground.  
Rachel landed between two Mutoids. Jumping into the air, she performed a slip kick that knocked them back. Landing, she kicked in front of her, knocking back her would be attacker. Using the same leg, she then kicked behind her, catching the attack Mutoid in the face and knocking it to the ground.  
Brian dove at one of the Mutoids. As he and it hit the ground, he rolled over it, jumping into a kick that caught another Mutoid in the chest. Two Mutoids came at either side of him, arm cannons raised. He quickly blocked the on-coming weapons, knocking them off target. As the Mutoids fired, their blasts knocked back a group of Mutoid running forward to join the fight.  
John landed ahead of all of them. Landing, he ran towards Kantor. Kantor raised his left hand and fired an energy blast at him. John flipped over it, landing in front of him. He launched a volley of punches at Kantor, each catching him in the chest. The last made him stagger back, holding his chest. John was about to follow as an energy blast landed to his right. He quickly dodge it and turned towards its source. Gun Hog had two laser pistols aimed at him. "Not so fast, Ranger!!" As he was about to fire, Brian and Barry came forward knocking the pistols form his hands. Katherine and Rachel jumped forward, launching jump side kicks to his chest. Landing, Rachel turned towards John. "We can handle this! You go after Kantor!"  
John nodded and turned his attention back to Kantor, who was now falling back, a few Mutoids covering his flank. He ran forward and jumped over the Mutoids to face Kantor. Behind him, Katherine and Rachel attacked the Mutoids as Barry and Brian battled Gun Hog.  
"Not so fast, Kantor!" called out John.  
Kantor turned to face the Universal Red Ranger. "Blast! This was not supposed to happen!" he said. He pulled out his katana sword and ran towards John.  
As John watched Kantor run towards him, an image appeared in his visor. It showed a long sword, with the words "Quantum Saber". Raising his right arm in front of him, he ran towards Kantor, calling out "Quantum Saber!!" A bright red length of light appeared in his hand and took the shape of a sword. As the two meet, Kantor's blade and the light in John's hand clashed. The light shattered, revealing a long sword. It had a red hilt, with a Time Force insignia were the blade and hilt meet. John pushed Kantor back, knocking him off balance. John moved forward and slashed his sword. Kantor quickly blocked it. John continued to attack, pushing Kantor back. Kantor blocked each attack, then thrust his sword at John. John dodged the attack by stepping to the side. He spun around with his blade and slashed. He caught Kantor hand, making him drop his sword. Kantor cried out in pain as he turned to face John. John slashed upward, catching Kantor in the face. The mutant cried out in pain as he was thrown back by the attack. He thrashed on the ground, holding his wounded face.  
John stepped forward. "Its over, Kantor. You have lost."  
Kantor pulled himself to his feet and slowly removed his hand from his face. The attack left a deep wound across his face. It started at below his left check and went diagonally to his right eye. "I will never lose to you, human!!"  
"This time, you have." John was about to attack as he heard a cry from behind him. He turned around to see his fellow Rangers being attacked by Gun Hog in the distance. He had pulled out a large cannon and was firing at them. In his helmet, John could hear Brian. "John, we need you! Gun Hog is overpow...!" He was cut off by an explosion.  
"What are you going to do, human?" Kantor said to John, he words dripping with hatred. John turned to face him. "Will you stop me and allow your friends to be destroyed, or will you go to their aid?"  
John turned back to his friends, then back to face Kantor. With an angry yell, he turned and ran back to his friends.  
Kantor smiled. "Your loyalty betrays you."He raised his hands in front of his face. He threw them down to his sides as he dropped into a bright red light as his feet.

Gun Hog let out an evil laugh as he fired another energy blast from him cannon. The Rangers were able to dodge it. Brian jumped forward, trying to wrestle the cannon from Gun Hog's grip.  
"Oh no you don't!!" Gun Hog grabbed the Ranger by his shoulder and threw him over his head. Brian landed hard on the ground a few feet away. The other Rangers quickly ran to his side.  
"Are you alright?" asked Katherine.  
"Ya, I'll be ok," answered Brian, holding onto his shoulder as he pulled himself to his feet.  
"I thought this guy was supposed to go down easy!" said Barry.  
"So did I. Guess we aren't that lucky."  
Gun Hog turned to face the Rangers. "Good, all in one place." He fired his cannon before the Rangers could react. They were throw back by the force of the blast. Each let out a painful groan as they landed on the ground.  
Gun Hog laughed as he stepped forward, looking down at the fallen Rangers.  
"Now Ranger," he said, aiming his cannon at them, "its time for the game to end."  
"Uya!!!" Gun Hog looked up to see John flying down towards him. With one quick swipe of his sword, John cut straight through the cannon, slicing Gun Hog in the chest. The cannon fell to to the ground as Gun Hug fell back, squealing in pain.  
"You guys ok?" asked John.  
"Ya, I think we are all ok," said Rachel as the others Rangers got to their feet.  
"Where did you get that sword?" asked Brian.  
"I'm not sure. When I was fighting Kantor, I called out for it and it appeared."  
"What do you mean?" asked Katherine.  
As if to answer her question, each of the Rangers visors displayed the message "Weapon Systems Now Activated". A bright light of of each Rangers' respective color appeared in their hands. The lights shattered, revealing their weapons.  
In Brian hands now rested a green battle ax. Each end held a twin-bladed ax. "Amazing..."  
Barry began to swing his twin short swords. "Now this is what I am talking about!"  
Katherine began spin her new three-piece bo staff between her hands. "This will do nicely."  
Rachel looked at the blaster that appeared in her right hand. It had a barrel at its center, with three wings coming from either side and the top, each with its own, smaller barrel.  
"Ok Rangers!" said John. "Time to show this guy what happens when you take on Time Force!"  
All the Rangers nodded in agreement. One by one they jumped towards Gun Hog, weapons raised.  
Brian and Barry landed in front of him, striking him in the chest with his weapons. "Uni-Ax!!" "Twin Chrono-Blades!!" The attacks made Gun Hog stagger back as piece of his armor began to break off.  
Katherine jumped over them, rotating her sanjiegun in a figure-eight rotation. "Tri-Staff!!!" As she landed, she struck Gun Hog with both ends of her sanjiegun, shattering the armor on his shoulders.  
Rachel jumped off Barry's and Brian's shoulders aiming her blaster a the creature. "Tri-Wing Blaster!!" She fired three shots from the weapon, hitting Gun Hog square in the chest. Gun Hog cried out as he fell back, holding his chest. The last remain pieces of his chest-plate landed on the ground in front of him. The badly beaten mutant looked up to be greeted by the sight of John running towards him. He had his blade in his hand, facing outward. As he grew closer, the blade began to glow red. A few feet from the creature, John jumped forward. "Quantum STRIKE!!!!" His edge of his swords sliced through the creatures stomach. John landed a few feet behind the monster. He raised his sword to his face as the creature cried out, throwing its arms into the air. As John threw his sword to his side, Gun Hog erupted in explosions and fell to the ground. A large explosion came from his fallen body, which suddenly froze in the air and reversed itself. It pulled itself into its center, revealing the shrunken figure of Gun Hog. The Rangers made their way to the fallen creature. John pulled out his Time Force Badge and held it above the fallen creature, its face in his palm. As he pressed a button on its side, Gun Hog's tiny form lifted a few inches off the ground and was suddenly encased in a cryo-containment unit.  
"All right! We did it!!" Barry jumped into the air raising his arms in triumph.  
"I have to say, I am surprised." said Brian.  
"You need to have more faith in us!" Barry patted Brian and John on the shoulder.

Suddenly, the air was filled with the sound of cheers and applause. The Rangers turned around to see the steps up to the Academy filled with Time Force officers and cadets, all cheering for them. In front of them was Commissioner Archer, Commander Lexington, and Commander Oliver. The Rangers made their way over to the steps and faced their commanding officers. They all dropped their morphs as John stepped forwards and handed Gun Hog to Commissioner Archer.  
"I am sorry sir. I," he stopped and turned around to look at this friends. "I mean WE couldn't let the Academy be destroyed."  
Rachel stepped forward next to him, "We had to do something."  
"Ya," said Barry from behind them. "You guys should be thanking us!!" He let out a grunt of pain as Katherine elbowed him in the stomach.  
Oliver looked angrily at them, "That is not the point!! You all have broken numerous laws and mandates. Do you understand ..."  
Archer raised his hand to silence Oliver, then spoke. "Cadets, you have broken many laws. Escape from Time Force custody, destruction of property, theft of Time Force technology. and impersonation of Time Force officers. These are serious charges."  
"Sir," John tired to speak, but was quickly quieted by Archer's raised hand.  
'Under normal circumstances, you would be facing thousands of years in cryo-freeze."  
The cadets looked at each other, dreading the worst. A murmur came from the crowd around them.  
"But these are far from normal circumstances," he said with a smile.  
"But sir!" Oliver and Lexington both spoke.  
"These cadets have gone far beyond the call of duty. They have placed their lives on the line to protect this Academy."  
"That is true, but, sir, what of the charges brought against them?" Lexington tried to speak to his commander.  
"It is within my power to pardon these cadets from all those charges. But before I do, I have one question for them." Archer looked directly at John. "You took a chance coming back to stop the mutants. You could have been captured or worse, killed. Why did you come back to save us?"  
John looked at his friends. Each gave him an approving nod. As he turned to face Archer, he smiled. "Its like I told you before, sir. We won't stand by and let them win. We are Rangers, and we will protect those who need us." The other cadets nodded in agreement.  
Archer smiled. " Thats was the answer I was hoping to hear. You are hereby pardoned of all charges brought against you."  
The cadets gave a sigh of relief as the crowd cheered.  
"But sir!" said Oliver. The crowd fell silent again. "What about the morphers? All that research and involvement in the Universal Ranger program? Was it all for nothing?"  
"I do not thing so, Oliver. I think we have found ourselves the best candidates Time Force has to offer."  
The cadets looked shocked, but no were near as shocked as Oliver. "Sir, you don't mean..."  
"That is exactly what I mean Oliver."  
Archer turned to the cadets as he raised his hand in front of John. "Congratulations. You five are now enrolled in the Universal Ranger program. From now on, your team will be known as the Universal Rangers."  
The crowd erupted in cheers as John shook Commissioner Archer's hand. John could only smile as his friends excitedly talked behind him.  
"We did it!!" exclaimed Barry.  
"ALRIGHT!!" The girls gave each other a hug.  
Brian tried to remain in control of his excitement, but could not keep a grin off his face.  
John only smiled at his friends. This is it, he though to himself, a new beginning.


	12. Epilogue

Kantor stood in the middle of a darkened throne room. It was decorated with grand tapestries and ancient pieces of art.  
"KANTOR!!!!" a booming voice erupted from the throne in front of Kantor. "How dare you return empty handed!!"  
"I am sorry, my Eminence!" said Kantor. "We were in place to destroy Time Force and take the remaining Time Gate when the Rangers appeared."  
"RANGERS!!" Two red eyes shone through the darkness like hot coals. "Time Force has no Rangers that can stand against us!"  
"But they do, my King! They are the same that traveled back in time and stopped Gun Hog from destroying the original Power Rangers as you planned."  
A angry growl came from the darkness. "It seems Time Force was more prepared then I anticipated. These 'Rangers' will become a nuisance."  
An evil laugh echoed within the chamber. "No matter. Mark my words, Kantor. Time Force will fall by my hand!!"  
"Yes, my King. And on that day, mutant kind will take its rightful place as leaders of this world."

AUTHOR NOTES: I hope you guys enjoyed Universal Ranger. I had a blast working on it once I finally got myself the free time to do it. I am planning on working on new stories in this universe if I know people are interested. Please Review and tell me what you think. I am also looking for Power Ranger eras for the Universal Rangers to visit. Post your favorite Power Rangers series in your reviews. Hope to hear from you guys.


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